tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71221631573064988942024-03-29T16:22:02.604+11:00My Abundant LifeHello Readers, my name is Wendy. I am a happily married mother of two young ladies. Together with my husband we are living an abundant life through growing some of our own vegetables and fruit, cooking and baking everything we can from scratch and being mindful of what we use and buy.
God has blessed us abundantly. We try to be good stewards of those blessings.Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.comBlogger954125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-38345988381310674362024-03-27T17:02:00.005+11:002024-03-27T17:02:28.922+11:00Cost Of Living Crisis Series - Have Your Say.<p> Quite often I get messages from people asking about how the cost of living crisis is affecting us. I've also had others asking how do we keep our costs so low.</p><p>So I thought I'd do a series with a new topic each week. So far, here are the topics I thought I could write about -</p><p>* How to do laundry cheaply.</p><p>* How to make clothes last longer.</p><p>* Cleaning your home for under $1 a year.</p><p>* Buying petrol as cheap as possible.</p><p>* Budget busting gifts.</p><p>* My frugal grocery shopping list.</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #a64d79;">Are there any areas of your budget you need to tighten ?</span></i></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #a64d79;">What topics would you like me to write about ?</span></i></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #a64d79;">How has the cost of living crisis affected you ?</span></i></h3><div><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuwaR0P7qdvBhkjqQAuVbNBBreYecuD8eJAXolI9sWvWhM49PyLwokmDAbxtrbfdV7vYuFRYkhKiZtoYGtlxXTSs7RhkEALv-gLbSvs6ZDkJJiNVkY02QhQVGY6ElC9Tw-de72IWVNvERR9uTGGmrcpQpNrYwN9x_wE9Pls5tRl-eJkfPCNR0fVtR-DA3G/s3472/100_6677.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2604" data-original-width="3472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuwaR0P7qdvBhkjqQAuVbNBBreYecuD8eJAXolI9sWvWhM49PyLwokmDAbxtrbfdV7vYuFRYkhKiZtoYGtlxXTSs7RhkEALv-gLbSvs6ZDkJJiNVkY02QhQVGY6ElC9Tw-de72IWVNvERR9uTGGmrcpQpNrYwN9x_wE9Pls5tRl-eJkfPCNR0fVtR-DA3G/s320/100_6677.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /></i></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-22103241310821565922024-03-23T06:00:00.003+11:002024-03-23T20:41:54.420+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 23rd March 2024 <p> 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. </p><p>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.</p><p>There's no cost of living crisis in our home. Just a little pressure to find better deals and ways to save money.</p><p>Here's how we saved money this week - </p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* Dried all the washing outside on clothes horses on the decking on rainy days. On the sunny days, the washing went on the line.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* Used the solar lanterns at night instead of turning lamps on in the loungeroom.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">LINKS -</span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2017/08/anzac-biscuits.html">ANZAC Biscuits</a><br /></span></b></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2015/01/brown-sugar.html"><b>Brown Sugar</b></a></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7HRFLrFz9cp3yEYTXw12xlhDEGcfGa7dGxWgl2108H8n6UIa06zzAiRbvCWcmLup-gDSgiS_XU42G4cINyrsDyfCMnOrLhBQerVeDmXPsbSSAGnY2RHio4O65jvodjOzrgk7k9yZeWvv_tMr3pbSE0pdOwSiW3DdNVsIgPw7JzqmIh7lpXIUzf_GxeWub/s8160/IMG20240322131418.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7HRFLrFz9cp3yEYTXw12xlhDEGcfGa7dGxWgl2108H8n6UIa06zzAiRbvCWcmLup-gDSgiS_XU42G4cINyrsDyfCMnOrLhBQerVeDmXPsbSSAGnY2RHio4O65jvodjOzrgk7k9yZeWvv_tMr3pbSE0pdOwSiW3DdNVsIgPw7JzqmIh7lpXIUzf_GxeWub/s320/IMG20240322131418.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade ANZAC biscuits</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYz5qk75yr0BFhZ9V-IJILgFSwpfI3_G7pShLXyjSj_KpvTJ5ncOxR0hiaPZrbu9LmQgAokBZo8LmaasWymHqPB1TZnZyOMsSSgSGCbVgAy9L4uKwn_v30FdkGAmrscD09IqU3H5bu0HkVmMaQauLP8y2rnt3CxGFKd7sfOKLoARUyXV21ghP2jUpLdlyK/s8160/IMG20240321180814.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYz5qk75yr0BFhZ9V-IJILgFSwpfI3_G7pShLXyjSj_KpvTJ5ncOxR0hiaPZrbu9LmQgAokBZo8LmaasWymHqPB1TZnZyOMsSSgSGCbVgAy9L4uKwn_v30FdkGAmrscD09IqU3H5bu0HkVmMaQauLP8y2rnt3CxGFKd7sfOKLoARUyXV21ghP2jUpLdlyK/s320/IMG20240321180814.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of our corn</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVrCrFMU3Ug-bkpx-XHJzwFM6GrFLrSn6RB0ekU4wJnE6LQIVOH1LYCQqvXfIn5zs-FUReIPhbB4JDGcsqPhBF0Xsv4Y7OhvhI61WidJ4OqcYxvUM7EgiBxzn8P5UXq9Eo5KDZuN-j51_xGi9FHG5QFb0LCktuByg3j9WmsUW4cEPbtDMXoqJtVgz-8veb/s8160/IMG20240319185508.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVrCrFMU3Ug-bkpx-XHJzwFM6GrFLrSn6RB0ekU4wJnE6LQIVOH1LYCQqvXfIn5zs-FUReIPhbB4JDGcsqPhBF0Xsv4Y7OhvhI61WidJ4OqcYxvUM7EgiBxzn8P5UXq9Eo5KDZuN-j51_xGi9FHG5QFb0LCktuByg3j9WmsUW4cEPbtDMXoqJtVgz-8veb/s320/IMG20240319185508.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bits and pieces dinner with some of the leftovers<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Luka ( 5 ) and Bryson ( 4 ), came over during the week and helped me decorate our home. Both boys put the decorations in the vases and placed everything where they wanted them. I think they did a pretty good job. They were certainly happy and proud of their work.<div><br /><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhmYsKgjI_OkVCiG_TB16eSbsSBDMNhQCrtEBaAo-KWmSewBTddnanQARdyaskS4l80JsVQFOhjrQjBdfcIR6yMeVgU3qsGBGczrbt9sGCIvNR9RccDV9k2kICkUD-Q-L2plIbYYo_JW_l-fB80C35IMc9xtauxtFWtrbdBPFenN6tauoKOLi52GDXH3s/s8160/IMG20240321161840.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhmYsKgjI_OkVCiG_TB16eSbsSBDMNhQCrtEBaAo-KWmSewBTddnanQARdyaskS4l80JsVQFOhjrQjBdfcIR6yMeVgU3qsGBGczrbt9sGCIvNR9RccDV9k2kICkUD-Q-L2plIbYYo_JW_l-fB80C35IMc9xtauxtFWtrbdBPFenN6tauoKOLi52GDXH3s/s320/IMG20240321161840.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XsHQz65pbJvsYRHMxoX53gqlPuezxQY1bJS_YSOGH9ME5_mq1iE5sfM2XbFnM3kQVypwaH8AtVBVIMQK1jC1MutQzApXn9N-IPe5gsgcj5785TRedPCOxM5Ari3cDZaEn12RKttO3M_nRByvEIsUSWR5oKRYu2F73ji7mdPqit-Io6An1g3tD3m5jZQj/s8160/IMG20240321161856.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XsHQz65pbJvsYRHMxoX53gqlPuezxQY1bJS_YSOGH9ME5_mq1iE5sfM2XbFnM3kQVypwaH8AtVBVIMQK1jC1MutQzApXn9N-IPe5gsgcj5785TRedPCOxM5Ari3cDZaEn12RKttO3M_nRByvEIsUSWR5oKRYu2F73ji7mdPqit-Io6An1g3tD3m5jZQj/s320/IMG20240321161856.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Easter tree.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoBLu11rj3zTvhzl4ZGNwmeb8Nw0NAzjbAgx0jVl2e6Ui8bVwAdAO0bmrOlsBvwwhZvC4MGj5K52Rp4eRzY9Pv3xcCWUx_umWIRYfshpSM9KiEi2TK4eVeT3mRcCl5eameOhOIr7rjMNzUOqNTuJ9uX6I8yEWWHugeiaTg_KDUK9tlUCeSGHcLj30Jb7QM/s8160/IMG20240321161908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoBLu11rj3zTvhzl4ZGNwmeb8Nw0NAzjbAgx0jVl2e6Ui8bVwAdAO0bmrOlsBvwwhZvC4MGj5K52Rp4eRzY9Pv3xcCWUx_umWIRYfshpSM9KiEi2TK4eVeT3mRcCl5eameOhOIr7rjMNzUOqNTuJ9uX6I8yEWWHugeiaTg_KDUK9tlUCeSGHcLj30Jb7QM/s320/IMG20240321161908.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0EGznwhmSa1yrsc1JyGyYIsJ7FBNiqH9SvImdSq9W1Lu2aMtMBi9CDdeZN0EXqHSZXuyLl1SGZIGonNSRtqlabfiwzLeuZC9QFB9zBWM111zEgDjU48QyEYrrSq72vpdOv3B-7v4yUA6MFqCmKDXyWvnQZwAwWe0oy_HT8N27DBhgrpwm36U7Cuz8hbah/s8160/IMG20240321161808.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0EGznwhmSa1yrsc1JyGyYIsJ7FBNiqH9SvImdSq9W1Lu2aMtMBi9CDdeZN0EXqHSZXuyLl1SGZIGonNSRtqlabfiwzLeuZC9QFB9zBWM111zEgDjU48QyEYrrSq72vpdOv3B-7v4yUA6MFqCmKDXyWvnQZwAwWe0oy_HT8N27DBhgrpwm36U7Cuz8hbah/s320/IMG20240321161808.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Do you put any Easter decorations up ?</span></i></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #3d85c6;">How did you save money this week ?</span></i></h2><p><br /></p></div></div></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-14961027421563270822024-03-16T06:00:00.001+11:002024-03-16T06:00:00.137+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 16th March 2024<p> Welcome back to another post on frugal living. I really hope the tasks I list help you to save money, especially when times are tough and many people are struggling.</p><p>Darren and I had a quick trip to Tasmania over the long weekend. We took our oldest grandson Luka ( almost 5 ) with us on his first plane trip and to meet his Pop ( Darren's Dad ). We avoided the heatwave here in Melbourne, but it was unusually humid in Tasmania. We've learnt to pack clothes for all seasons even if it's just a 4 day trip.</p><p>Our Summer veggie garden is coming to an end. The sweet corn is not growing too well due to the lack of consistent heat. We still have zucchinis growing and silverbeet to pick. The potatoes are at least another 8 weeks away from digging up and I'm hoping my second planting of beans will produce.</p><p>Here's how we've saved money around our home and garden -</p><p>* I made more raspberry jam using fruit from our garden.</p><p>* I baked wholemeal bread and rolls with extra goodness for our breakfasts ( as toast ) and for Darren to take to work at the hospital.</p><p>* I made a couple of big trays of zucchini slice using zucchinis, carrots and potatoes from our garden.</p><p>* We saved water in the kitchen from drink bottles, rinsing dishes and from the thermos. This was all poured onto the pot plants and strawberries on our deck.</p><p>* Saved the kitchen scraps and paper for our compost bucket. Every few days Darren emptied it into the compost bin outside.</p><p>* I picked a beautifully scented rose from the garden. It gave off a beautiful perfume in the kitchen.</p><p>* We filled our thermos each morning with boiled water for cups of tea during the day.</p><p>* I washed and reused ziplock bags for freezing fruit from our garden.</p><p>* I baked choc chip biscuits and cranberry hootycreek biscuit to take to Tasmania with us.</p><p>* We picked raspberries, lemons, silverbeet, corn, pears, a few potatoes and zucchinis from our garden.</p><p>* I bought a couple of Winter tops from Savers op shop and used a discount voucher to get 20% off.</p><p>* I made 2 lasagnes ( 1 large and 1 medium ) using 750 grams of beef mince and stretched it out with TVP, grated carrot and lots of shredded silverbeet. I portioned it out into 18 hearty serves. We had some for dinner that night and 16 serves went into the freezer.</p><p>* Dried all the washing on clothes horses outside. Our weather has either been hot or wet, so standing outside hanging washing on the line was not a great option.</p><p>* Reused bread bags over and over again for storing bread in the freezer, double wrapping meat in the freezer and then as bin liners in the bathrooms.</p><p><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">LINKS-</span></b></p><div><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/10/lasagne.html">Lasagne</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/wholemeal-bread-with-extra-goodness.html">Wholemeal bread with extra goodness</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2016/02/zucchini-slice.html">Zucchini Slice</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2019/08/choc-chip-bickies-cookies.html">Choc chip bickies</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/cranberry-hootycreek-biscuits.html">Cranberry Hootycreek Biscuits</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinN02wLuCpZjufA5zfB9jAcudXlhsg1MuIxKUSG0TYi4MIhoCoRtalLxo56ZYlloJ1c1ZVpRxY5N6RgF5Pf7nOG83dvKQrAoY53B5-a_CjFgzud74PsVteJr3Qt91PlNuO6SMpfS9hBTuFW79R9eWIjVwExg2KFo9ncmUuwornp6i4Fzgy0fHNJJaENK7B/s8160/IMG20240304170814.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinN02wLuCpZjufA5zfB9jAcudXlhsg1MuIxKUSG0TYi4MIhoCoRtalLxo56ZYlloJ1c1ZVpRxY5N6RgF5Pf7nOG83dvKQrAoY53B5-a_CjFgzud74PsVteJr3Qt91PlNuO6SMpfS9hBTuFW79R9eWIjVwExg2KFo9ncmUuwornp6i4Fzgy0fHNJJaENK7B/s320/IMG20240304170814.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade bread and raspberry jam</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9yGJG6ua6czVP85sIFGqh_fYATZmhe4CilOnL4hZ4WXGqgX3KSQ0zcF6_B5bscdIE3dBpZkKAO7P3mJbM-GE3ZX9loI4zhUhH8k9M3h3uOVuuoujHsoGZZwCXIbAE3vsWPJIe9iMQTjZmu2X4lx2_vq2xACQtioyF8swoFtnP7-t_v0cRKvuhjUealgI/s8160/IMG20240303184826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9yGJG6ua6czVP85sIFGqh_fYATZmhe4CilOnL4hZ4WXGqgX3KSQ0zcF6_B5bscdIE3dBpZkKAO7P3mJbM-GE3ZX9loI4zhUhH8k9M3h3uOVuuoujHsoGZZwCXIbAE3vsWPJIe9iMQTjZmu2X4lx2_vq2xACQtioyF8swoFtnP7-t_v0cRKvuhjUealgI/s320/IMG20240303184826.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the garden</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc4FG4GMb8SoGFFUnE4cvD1hkO_AK01VL5GeuN0XgV7q1dIdQlOr7aYJTjgJaJwykIMwYWs45VRnIQyXCWZMBDliM9jtQDvN1ynj7-yXdz4E581jYWmBlW5KaHcUx9uGkvlpdHOt-TQ-j84O7Y3vRPA6jyQ7ix0q0YHUhktPiPzdOMMbNItnmLndywa922/s8160/IMG20240305095243.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc4FG4GMb8SoGFFUnE4cvD1hkO_AK01VL5GeuN0XgV7q1dIdQlOr7aYJTjgJaJwykIMwYWs45VRnIQyXCWZMBDliM9jtQDvN1ynj7-yXdz4E581jYWmBlW5KaHcUx9uGkvlpdHOt-TQ-j84O7Y3vRPA6jyQ7ix0q0YHUhktPiPzdOMMbNItnmLndywa922/s320/IMG20240305095243.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautifully scented from our garden</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhizlOSEVUZUO_pZ3Hk_Smm5QmcNUKTUmSzp2F8qjIBMiXY_Oiq6_MzL0oKZi8s_S7cLQQdKRH65Dy8P-dOLyR19TPVw9j10uHswvLEqydoi9IGnqbxgQKpg_vqRGmz7GYqOEUpESt_vGCcWODtlttEvslH05X3Lu1VOTpAflwC8YRvPHiFtYH5C-sLZ1GJ/s8160/IMG20240305102441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhizlOSEVUZUO_pZ3Hk_Smm5QmcNUKTUmSzp2F8qjIBMiXY_Oiq6_MzL0oKZi8s_S7cLQQdKRH65Dy8P-dOLyR19TPVw9j10uHswvLEqydoi9IGnqbxgQKpg_vqRGmz7GYqOEUpESt_vGCcWODtlttEvslH05X3Lu1VOTpAflwC8YRvPHiFtYH5C-sLZ1GJ/s320/IMG20240305102441.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Using our thermos to save money</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB5Ff1c74E1FHbMGOyTAawQcKTulSJxdKKQv4DMekl4LnMqZMpKkS1wwfUcP6e9lVWi1OZbOD_dLq11nYLyyvl3UbE9NKjhPwf1cIHAHnudGExSHgD3gKc_Xk0cgCUVwYmZxQfr5EKfkr2dDfoIcj8_aAHDL1JdSaP7MSr_R1YwLLClc-a8isb_yV2psyq/s8160/IMG20240305102509.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB5Ff1c74E1FHbMGOyTAawQcKTulSJxdKKQv4DMekl4LnMqZMpKkS1wwfUcP6e9lVWi1OZbOD_dLq11nYLyyvl3UbE9NKjhPwf1cIHAHnudGExSHgD3gKc_Xk0cgCUVwYmZxQfr5EKfkr2dDfoIcj8_aAHDL1JdSaP7MSr_R1YwLLClc-a8isb_yV2psyq/s320/IMG20240305102509.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drying and reusing ziplock bags</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNJawnY62Z6T0PvU00-FOCOcjMVM1VFybvVBlnI0_OXmPx1acf5TqQdXiHHwCt89mvyro6X7Kv4urDpc5-MCUCZyc9WdDGpJo2MwvHC1Xr3_GmqcPePeSL5h7zIlNGaPEhUx8zTNW46hH7-sc7WGLt908yitzFs7fhxd9rauBs4iEzlWpK_31LZ6uLFka/s8160/IMG20240312160608.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNJawnY62Z6T0PvU00-FOCOcjMVM1VFybvVBlnI0_OXmPx1acf5TqQdXiHHwCt89mvyro6X7Kv4urDpc5-MCUCZyc9WdDGpJo2MwvHC1Xr3_GmqcPePeSL5h7zIlNGaPEhUx8zTNW46hH7-sc7WGLt908yitzFs7fhxd9rauBs4iEzlWpK_31LZ6uLFka/s320/IMG20240312160608.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luka on the plane with his little buddy</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9hhTFRW9RjtKD8PrxdjdMTyl3-UuXeVGxS8siaGART5EIQdlK3O2uqZbCOfaKFhNTJKG714VJgc14tmTXfYDD-tqOoCuqHm2C6uskS3hYpOtHjeRxP3TmlxTNYRMMIZeSx9kAMFuRyNOxBUCj17rktInsCpuJ07CdZqdA-OHISMg8t-5jZqkcmBt08mcB/s5152/IMG_3525.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9hhTFRW9RjtKD8PrxdjdMTyl3-UuXeVGxS8siaGART5EIQdlK3O2uqZbCOfaKFhNTJKG714VJgc14tmTXfYDD-tqOoCuqHm2C6uskS3hYpOtHjeRxP3TmlxTNYRMMIZeSx9kAMFuRyNOxBUCj17rktInsCpuJ07CdZqdA-OHISMg8t-5jZqkcmBt08mcB/s320/IMG_3525.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pears from our tree.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">How have you saved money this week ?</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">Have you bulk cooked any meals lately ?</span></h3><p><br /></p><p>I've had a few people ask for a picture of the solar lanterns we use. They were purchased from Bunnings but they are out of stock at the moment. They are really garden lights but we took the stake off them.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-5bAggG-gfa0zFO6AVsnoiMXFep7UMJKp0tYkXxm3Ul0kSyZBaJzVnyvx6tw2BYerCPAR97S__T69uZn9OWm7V1Evd7rtt3oMAL9UHowL-4-qgNqRk0qCxlGEORPg79siox7WSyIqqFbwRm66t1VsCGgZqTX35e9FV5U4ma0Re9K80AmXR6n9GcOZ1JKr/s5152/IMG_3444.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-5bAggG-gfa0zFO6AVsnoiMXFep7UMJKp0tYkXxm3Ul0kSyZBaJzVnyvx6tw2BYerCPAR97S__T69uZn9OWm7V1Evd7rtt3oMAL9UHowL-4-qgNqRk0qCxlGEORPg79siox7WSyIqqFbwRm66t1VsCGgZqTX35e9FV5U4ma0Re9K80AmXR6n9GcOZ1JKr/s320/IMG_3444.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-76144809938682193382024-03-02T19:22:00.001+11:002024-03-02T19:22:12.065+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 2nd March 2024<p> It's been a week of surviving hot ( and at times humid ) weather. Our veggie garden is suffering a little and the tomato plants died off every quickly. Thankfully they still have fruit on them and I'll be picking any remaining this coming week.</p><p>I've done very little baking or cooking due to the heat and some nights our meals were bits and pieces from the fridge with homemade potato salad. Sometimes these simple meals are appreciated more than a fancy meal.</p><p>Here's how we saved money this week -</p><p>* I sold an unwanted item on Marketplace. The money from this was put into the gift fund.</p><p>* I picked a handful or two of raspberries almost every day. I have enough berries in the freezer to make another batch of jam shortly.</p><p>* I made up a bottle of surface spray for the kitchen using cooled boiled water and a couple of squirts of dishwashing liquid ( the cheapest Aldi brand ).</p><p>* I used our air fryer to crisp up a homemade garlic bread. The garlic bread came from the freezer. I defrosted it in the microwave for 40 seconds, then placed it back in the foil with the top open. It only needed 2 minutes in the air fryer. This is far quicker and cheaper than using the oven.</p><p>* I picked quite a few tomatoes and 2 ears of corn from our garden. I've frozen 2 x 1.5 kilos of tomatoes to be turned into tomato relish when the weather cools down. I already have a couple of people lining up to buy some relish.</p><p>* We've had a few super hot, humid days over the last week or two. On these days we cannot use our evap cooling. So to make our split system air conditioning work better throughout the house, we use a couple of electric fans ( pedestal and box ) to push the cold air from one end of the house to the other. We also close off the 2 spare bedrooms, spare bathroom and toilet and the laundry. This has been quite effective and saves us from buying and using another $3000 air conditioning system.</p><p>* We fed grass, weeds, lettuce and silverbeet to our chicken.</p><p>* We used the solar lanterns at night to light up our loungeroom. With it being so sunny lately, the lanterns last all night. By morning they give off a soft glow.</p><p>* I cleaned the dishwasher filters with kitchen detergent. I also cleaned the dishwasher with bi carb and vinegar and ran it on a long, hot cycle.</p><p>* We gratefully received 2 small hams from a friend. They were 1 day out of their best before date so Darren sliced them up and froze it into 2 and 4 slice packets for lunches and dinners.</p><p>* We charged up a shaver, handheld fan, 2 in 1 vacuum, phones, dust buster hand vacuum and an iPad during the day when the Sun was shining to make the most of our solar panels. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hIVI3gW5mk3xIQKKY919GlEJfMkbjfb3TTrjQmUjqOjvfe8KQvrIHqK1zMg6mDRvt6_1uYFolB_HaD1tML6PsTlHRQVqAH6kV0MGO76LOLOXfFqDtaiPTVImhK3aqCclfhhvAhha_W9Kyk5VBQMl8wOg2QEsMOKQlVIZeY2ZtOuKyNZnkOCghnHMZqYK/s8160/IMG20240222104901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hIVI3gW5mk3xIQKKY919GlEJfMkbjfb3TTrjQmUjqOjvfe8KQvrIHqK1zMg6mDRvt6_1uYFolB_HaD1tML6PsTlHRQVqAH6kV0MGO76LOLOXfFqDtaiPTVImhK3aqCclfhhvAhha_W9Kyk5VBQMl8wOg2QEsMOKQlVIZeY2ZtOuKyNZnkOCghnHMZqYK/s320/IMG20240222104901.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ripening tomatoes from our garden.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5AmgZAMQK438UasIPRRt3SFtyVx4BP2MdfyzAXXPHRAL_FA14tw0XYC-Ef-DfsZS8c1Cd8Ouyvbc2EoZ1FEgOdbjSw8qK31cJKVZ2cgKo7pATgRXDje9jiwvdywMokuNsjLOS7oZAo-T0bZyaDF_STCgKRHYRs3li9o6hB4nQyd4D9qrjVr7hGkzjkQb/s8160/IMG20240302185845.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5AmgZAMQK438UasIPRRt3SFtyVx4BP2MdfyzAXXPHRAL_FA14tw0XYC-Ef-DfsZS8c1Cd8Ouyvbc2EoZ1FEgOdbjSw8qK31cJKVZ2cgKo7pATgRXDje9jiwvdywMokuNsjLOS7oZAo-T0bZyaDF_STCgKRHYRs3li9o6hB4nQyd4D9qrjVr7hGkzjkQb/s320/IMG20240302185845.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drying the washing outside</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwu-3eNHyaFXMGeHdcHgwNs-o_6j84HI47e0ZsKsWH98UAMYWm6eJCcQhWyHmpEGn3wPMYC0UKkL7wpsmSXBurGZK2-Ry5x55EskDW0CjF5At2Ngpi3nRHmfnrgL__iY2pdWr3XnnNMVIEBc_-dLP-jV2OZv69KMPZa-njyqaZD3mlGVA3TLwVdG5XNKDE/s8160/IMG20240302185923.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwu-3eNHyaFXMGeHdcHgwNs-o_6j84HI47e0ZsKsWH98UAMYWm6eJCcQhWyHmpEGn3wPMYC0UKkL7wpsmSXBurGZK2-Ry5x55EskDW0CjF5At2Ngpi3nRHmfnrgL__iY2pdWr3XnnNMVIEBc_-dLP-jV2OZv69KMPZa-njyqaZD3mlGVA3TLwVdG5XNKDE/s320/IMG20240302185923.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pears almost ready to pick.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBKPEDNWrQ1I5ZwI_9d1OkslERU4XmnLne6W86sf9Erg8LmcbJe3s9OLzV2tyhX6f2c3d-ezEyrTXnm8gvXg8t0f1jsp55Ocl2TpIghK_dVSJpdV0GICP83eXHEQH19UXcStxcQXfGDAv9vmcvyk5U-64a7GDbvslKhFyPuMiuAiSzwmhIMpKd7mikpEJ/s8160/IMG20240302190004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBKPEDNWrQ1I5ZwI_9d1OkslERU4XmnLne6W86sf9Erg8LmcbJe3s9OLzV2tyhX6f2c3d-ezEyrTXnm8gvXg8t0f1jsp55Ocl2TpIghK_dVSJpdV0GICP83eXHEQH19UXcStxcQXfGDAv9vmcvyk5U-64a7GDbvslKhFyPuMiuAiSzwmhIMpKd7mikpEJ/s320/IMG20240302190004.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of our back garden.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnSDFWhmJd90zfa-vfWOV29IoA_YqHC5WYrMTjeLsY0F4KsyxJzwEl7_CPv5LgUt47Q62YMhOFkU2QaKU4nLge7NHNHUKx6d2kO1DK4LCpB99RsCfvgbXY5yk1kxTNusXvDQqjKKqp5bXcma9YzzYrnA6fB17yYC55M_T2rQ3iFO3CCvajLQOG01gU7YtJ/s8160/IMG20240224092927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnSDFWhmJd90zfa-vfWOV29IoA_YqHC5WYrMTjeLsY0F4KsyxJzwEl7_CPv5LgUt47Q62YMhOFkU2QaKU4nLge7NHNHUKx6d2kO1DK4LCpB99RsCfvgbXY5yk1kxTNusXvDQqjKKqp5bXcma9YzzYrnA6fB17yYC55M_T2rQ3iFO3CCvajLQOG01gU7YtJ/s320/IMG20240224092927.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cleaning dishwasher filters</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKHrhwfCWACkiIlEvLajEwFq2nXKyl4167f8OXrXbLWA5tNdXX_u5UHX94BG-k_78FXdtNyCM4iLU0jK5LpQLqU1FS2brUGxX7yt6UPmmVgEHb3r4zG3Ix3WCcFRXQZ0Yv6N5NXpfiigpTjHMinfmNM-BI4QS60S5IB3gNqXjelDj2BKvaVaz07uv_xe9W/s8160/IMG20240224150559.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKHrhwfCWACkiIlEvLajEwFq2nXKyl4167f8OXrXbLWA5tNdXX_u5UHX94BG-k_78FXdtNyCM4iLU0jK5LpQLqU1FS2brUGxX7yt6UPmmVgEHb3r4zG3Ix3WCcFRXQZ0Yv6N5NXpfiigpTjHMinfmNM-BI4QS60S5IB3gNqXjelDj2BKvaVaz07uv_xe9W/s320/IMG20240224150559.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Afternoon tea at Jessica's home ( our daughter ).</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0QIhEsg-RWD45pd9ueNxupMgbPlqLhB2bY0O0y3wUvQJaFDzjbn1rApH8Ex1VmMUIQk0Dnch-AR30_1ljeUPB9HKZLwVlUGVNmlALr_2XLCMX4NzXaFI2XE3T8_chuBUYPkEFRm8rUOZ8RVIA8dKTNVCLmgh4XUo01Lix-x2aqotqyGrCkob2YvyimTtr/s8160/IMG20240224150547.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0QIhEsg-RWD45pd9ueNxupMgbPlqLhB2bY0O0y3wUvQJaFDzjbn1rApH8Ex1VmMUIQk0Dnch-AR30_1ljeUPB9HKZLwVlUGVNmlALr_2XLCMX4NzXaFI2XE3T8_chuBUYPkEFRm8rUOZ8RVIA8dKTNVCLmgh4XUo01Lix-x2aqotqyGrCkob2YvyimTtr/s320/IMG20240224150547.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #a64d79;">How do you keep cool in Summer without spending a fortune ?</span></i></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #a64d79;">How did you save money this week ?</span></i></h3><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-57224112726082429132024-02-24T11:16:00.007+11:002024-02-24T11:24:31.224+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 24th February 2024<p>Thankyou for your patience while I try to get back into regular blogging. Sometimes life gets in the way and last week it was a massive storm that hit Melbourne quite unexpectedly. We are fine and our home and garden didn't sustain any damage. Thankfully we didn't lose power either. It just flickered off for a second or two.</p><p>Unfortunately my Mum's power was out for almost 10 hours on a hot day. We ended up bringing her back to our place for the night to keep her safe and cool. We also made quite a few trips back and forth to Mum's place to rescue food, buy new food and to help pack and unpack Slowly, life is getting back to normal.</p><p>Here are some of the frugal tasks I completed over the last two weeks -</p><p>* Now that grapes are in season, reasonably cheap and quite delicious, I'm freezing them to eat later on in the year. This is a wonderful tip my Mum shared with me last year.</p><p>* I made apricot jam and raspberry jam using fruits from our garden and lemons from our tree.</p><p>* I continued decluttering and donated to our local Savers. I received a few 20% off discount coupons and used them to help purchase beautiful Christmas and birthday presents. It really is amazing what people get rid of. I've found new cup and saucer sets, crystal, reed diffusers, sewing kits, coffee mugs and craft items. Some of our drinking glasses were looking a bit ratty and I was able to pick up new ones even cheaper than Kmart and IKEA.</p><p>* Picked lots of rosemary from our garden and dried it in paper bags to avoid it getting dusty. I then put it in a coffee grinder to turn it into a powder. The powder sticks better to meats and vegetables when I roast them.</p><p>* I made a cushion cover for our rocking chair in the loungeroom.</p><p>* I replaced the elastic on two baby sun hats for our granddaughter Naomi. These are hats our girls wore when they were babies about 24 - 26 years ago. The hats now look brand new.</p><p>* Picked a handful of raspberries from our garden each day. I almost have enough in the freezer to make more jam.</p><p>* I picked lemons, silverbeet, carrots and beans from our garden and dug up over 5 kilos of free potatoes.</p><p>* Darren has been picking blackberries from a couple of locations near our home. He will be making his favourite jam very shortly.</p><p>* Made pita chips from cut up pita bread.</p><p>* I bulk cooked spag bol sauce. From 750 grams of beef mince, I made over 20 serves for dinner. Adding TVP, grated carrot and shredded silverbeet really helps to stretch the meat out and make it super cheap. </p><p>* I made cranberry hootycreek biscuits for Darren as part of his Valentines Day present. I've also made choc chip biscuits using dough I'd frozen earlier.</p><p>* We used our thermos to store boiling water for our morning cups of tea.</p><p>* I altered a couple of dresses for Megan that she purchased from Savers.</p><p>* I was given old Christmas cards from a cleaning client. I've upcycled them into new cards for next Christmas.</p><p>* We saved water from the kitchen to water our plants outside.</p><p><b><span style="color: #990000;">LINKS -</span></b></p><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/cranberry-hootycreek-biscuits.html">Cranberry Hootycreek Biscuits</a></span></b></div><p><b><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2016/02/pita-chips.html">Pita Chips</a><br /></b></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2019/08/choc-chip-bickies-cookies.html">Choc Chip Bickies ( Cookies )</a><br /></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-T6H4fdA-YvKz5HC95DibzEEgJG9r4u1C0HUpUMho0IueMvh8Of-R70y7puklLatFYb5r6h3J61m7ZMPWbHAnbNF_WQocPFezmRizQWiuO-MYus4iF1FODzViDnhS2ASN3In-UozmabLQFagSfKZ_PixJy8U8gojhFFev1hO99bEiZe7034RsR0MUp00Y/s8160/IMG20240224105242.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-T6H4fdA-YvKz5HC95DibzEEgJG9r4u1C0HUpUMho0IueMvh8Of-R70y7puklLatFYb5r6h3J61m7ZMPWbHAnbNF_WQocPFezmRizQWiuO-MYus4iF1FODzViDnhS2ASN3In-UozmabLQFagSfKZ_PixJy8U8gojhFFev1hO99bEiZe7034RsR0MUp00Y/s320/IMG20240224105242.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Upcycled Christmas cards</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7DiuipFCOKvMj5tGRknwsq7g4T8YdGdgwd0HQrcygutmufj6ZdhjjNki5aBkHzR9YMUWtTLbIQITnS8J0G3doQGNGr_uSNtFTWhGPZzI_wFpoe9DlBoukNC-WEYQmJ3jsl06jKS3ORkgDlFpb4upHrJOeec3ljiFCK9qL74Rk8DFRKG5ih53RaHaOxD5W/s8160/IMG20240224105011.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7DiuipFCOKvMj5tGRknwsq7g4T8YdGdgwd0HQrcygutmufj6ZdhjjNki5aBkHzR9YMUWtTLbIQITnS8J0G3doQGNGr_uSNtFTWhGPZzI_wFpoe9DlBoukNC-WEYQmJ3jsl06jKS3ORkgDlFpb4upHrJOeec3ljiFCK9qL74Rk8DFRKG5ih53RaHaOxD5W/s320/IMG20240224105011.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luka and Bryson's birthday cards.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdfWdEKUqo6AyOxSQIwbm5uxnjz63BYw5ZKd1Uf6H1M0P74v_wiIFTNeyuvkRTAQbYc8W-SGga9CCl93sscP3kdM3XDlwH6ha7E5uBeQhK-fTySuLa_GBE1Sn0bREI9Z7AYMHmeGzaex593WZf17f0MWEMqCWhEfCQdPMdiSgitq7ZNfGwooqWZEoMLPJ/s8160/IMG20240224105059.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdfWdEKUqo6AyOxSQIwbm5uxnjz63BYw5ZKd1Uf6H1M0P74v_wiIFTNeyuvkRTAQbYc8W-SGga9CCl93sscP3kdM3XDlwH6ha7E5uBeQhK-fTySuLa_GBE1Sn0bREI9Z7AYMHmeGzaex593WZf17f0MWEMqCWhEfCQdPMdiSgitq7ZNfGwooqWZEoMLPJ/s320/IMG20240224105059.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making 2 cards from 1</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2I92HUdPnyT5J4ql_yKBfyhrW0Mwj3MYXyPpXTyGlsW7b3gmGWQpqGlyEby2BitdWHGTV_lBmoxzRpZizT0tbyr0329layalvzyINMF92xm-CXL92ggYjJmxbNmrw4P2b8rSn7RRibrb5Ijj21RLKE4b3EDWJXKO_OQyDIWiT0yTAAN6IUDPrhAd9yc6o/s8160/IMG20240211134704.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2I92HUdPnyT5J4ql_yKBfyhrW0Mwj3MYXyPpXTyGlsW7b3gmGWQpqGlyEby2BitdWHGTV_lBmoxzRpZizT0tbyr0329layalvzyINMF92xm-CXL92ggYjJmxbNmrw4P2b8rSn7RRibrb5Ijj21RLKE4b3EDWJXKO_OQyDIWiT0yTAAN6IUDPrhAd9yc6o/s320/IMG20240211134704.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Summer fun at Nanny and Poppy's</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJUqQYRVZX5TZEWNII6j9Idl1RB0oqMTO45eyxCzV7n86fmglXXUihWPCf0HWYmTnVbKs7H4Gu26bK-0svQ3ZFRBen1mHitbCaqWnGW7Q_AMrB1bXqKKfDQDiNoBkETQ6hTyBHJwh_knm8zoecWAlZC2XSkfypszHe06z5uk_BsWLv4kw57uDi9dOmBk6/s8160/IMG20240209210324.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJUqQYRVZX5TZEWNII6j9Idl1RB0oqMTO45eyxCzV7n86fmglXXUihWPCf0HWYmTnVbKs7H4Gu26bK-0svQ3ZFRBen1mHitbCaqWnGW7Q_AMrB1bXqKKfDQDiNoBkETQ6hTyBHJwh_knm8zoecWAlZC2XSkfypszHe06z5uk_BsWLv4kw57uDi9dOmBk6/s320/IMG20240209210324.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spag bol in bulk</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZWEacXrqgoOa7Vv_Q0bkdcfsWT7jL3opYdYI-zHoqyhpg9HG_EpjCt8qFZVMa0SjgY04_WDgVscDqL_QU3dKjxPFI25sbQA-Zc1fEUge8btTQGJWH4kvECTxpLag1b29a4HYsEgXpO3qd1BXLT043otWG3xuN1QnUI6nbETuLpQfPzxYdMXJJgLX8mnH/s8160/IMG20240125153943.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZWEacXrqgoOa7Vv_Q0bkdcfsWT7jL3opYdYI-zHoqyhpg9HG_EpjCt8qFZVMa0SjgY04_WDgVscDqL_QU3dKjxPFI25sbQA-Zc1fEUge8btTQGJWH4kvECTxpLag1b29a4HYsEgXpO3qd1BXLT043otWG3xuN1QnUI6nbETuLpQfPzxYdMXJJgLX8mnH/s320/IMG20240125153943.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freezing grapes</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Do you upcycle anything around your home ?</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">How have you saved money this week ?</span></h3><div><span style="color: #0b5394;">P.S - I've had a few people ask me for the shortbread recipe I use. The recipe is posted in the recipe section under baking. Rice flour is used because that's the recipe on the rice flour packet of a well known brand. I'm new to shortbread making so I just followed the recipe.</span></div><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-27242509154692739192024-02-03T20:42:00.002+11:002024-02-03T20:42:30.218+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 3rd February 2024<p> Hello friends. My blogging break is over and I had lots of time to rest and relax at home over December and January. I took 3 1/2 weeks off from my cleaning work and it was absolute bliss to just stay home and potter around the garden.</p><p>Our December was busy with lots of end of year functions to attend. Darren was in our church's Christmas Eve play and Kurt was one of the backstage crew. Darren's brother came down from NSW just before Christmas for a visit and we caught up with him a couple of times.</p><p>Our grandchildren received a blow up pool and slide set for Christmas from their great grandparents in Tasmania. The pool lives in our backyard so the family came over for swims when the weather finally warmed up a little and it stopped raining. We enjoyed lots of bbqs here and at Megan and Kurt's place. There were lots of cuddles with our granddaughter Naomi who is now 4 1/2 months old and testing out her vocal chords and trying to roll over. She's a sweet little girl with a big smile that lights up the room.</p><p>Our oldest daughter Jessica came over for a few visits and took every opportunity to hold Naomi and play cars with Luka and Bryson.</p><p>My frugal list below is written in order of when I completed each task. I did get quite a few things done so I'll share my December / January list over this week and next week.</p><p><br /></p><p>* I planted heaps of beans, corn, zucchini and potatoes in our veggie garden. </p><p>* I've picked silverbeet to add to a few meals as our green veggie.</p><p>* Over the last 4 months I've been using a small, lightweight handbag from Kmart. It's been great and very comfortable to wear, but unfortunately the strap came off at one end. Thankfully the material is soft enough to repair so I was able to stitch it back on and reinforce the other end too.</p><p>* I mended and cleaned 2 pairs of sneakers. Hopefully I can get another 6 months out of my cleaning sneakers. The other pair just needed a clean and the laces washed.</p><p>* I upcycled quite a few retail store gift bags so they can be used for birthdays. It's been years since I bought wrapping paper for birthday presents.</p><p>* I made almost 1 kilo of rice flour for shortbread biscuit making. I did this by putting uncooked white rice into a coffee grinder and ground it until it was floury with a little bit of texture.</p><p>* I've picked about 5 kilos of beans, lots of lettuce, a few tomatoes here and there, lots of potatoes, lemons, strawberries, zucchinis, raspberries, apricots and a few plums ( the wind and birds got the rest ). Carrots are about the only vegetable I regularly buy at the fruit and veg shop.</p><p>* Recharged the vacuum, handheld vacuum ( dust buster ), Darren's shaver and phones when the Sun is shining.</p><p>* I made a big jar of dried seasoned bread crumbs from saved breads crusts I dried in the oven. I use these for coating chicken drumsticks and salmon patties. They are also great in rissoles, hamburger patties and as a topping in potato bakes etc.</p><p>* I made up 2 big batches of brown sugar as needed when I was doing some baking.</p><p>* I made cranberry hootycreek biscuits and choc chip biscuits. Lots of the biscuit dough was also frozen for future baking.</p><p>* I made up a half batch of yoghurt from scratch.</p><p>* Darren picked blackberries at a couple of locations. As soon as he has enough berries frozen I'll be making jam for him.</p><p>* I made wholemeal bread with extra goodness to have as toast for our breakfast every morning. I also make rolls for Darren to use in his lunch for work.</p><p>* I shopped the Boxing Day sales and got some fantastic deals on presents for this year and the next. All the presents have been allocated in my present book and all were budgeted for. In fact, I'm coming in well under budget for this year.</p><p>* Darren and I went to the movies using points he'd accumulated at Village cinemas. We rarely go to the movies so this was a wonderful treat.</p><p><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">LINKS - </span></b></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/cranberry-hootycreek-biscuits.html">Cranberry Hootycreek Biscuits</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2019/08/choc-chip-bickies-cookies.html">Choc Chip Bickies ( cookies )</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/wholemeal-bread-with-extra-goodness.html">Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2015/03/dried-seasoned-bread-crumbs.html">Dried Seasoned Bread Crumbs</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2015/01/brown-sugar.html">Brown Sugar</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/12/making-your-own-yoghurt.html">Making Your Own Yoghurt</a><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPsvAn7JLC6jhqYffDlN1qN8GZgl97f_5IdjvMnJTab6PwA0SD8Wbha-VM5C4jLgetJ4H0VrRGP_4gbQCh93zjdzdWrd-wB_mdYwbD1c85GxU55DkeEwZezNLYhdSmiSSfO_q42blwu8ljt8edNeCnkgacfUWBnqXeQbPDYUuyD5C3adGMpK7TD48qYJ-/s8160/IMG20231231143138.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPsvAn7JLC6jhqYffDlN1qN8GZgl97f_5IdjvMnJTab6PwA0SD8Wbha-VM5C4jLgetJ4H0VrRGP_4gbQCh93zjdzdWrd-wB_mdYwbD1c85GxU55DkeEwZezNLYhdSmiSSfO_q42blwu8ljt8edNeCnkgacfUWBnqXeQbPDYUuyD5C3adGMpK7TD48qYJ-/s320/IMG20231231143138.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bread making day</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilpweZGCthTdDZDA5p273kHZEl4m3JXX7B1xkUkakl2XcewrEEpYahUCErtcdhqC_QFQNd5iURGr9oZsPStwmuwVe1QhNzvCjRKH-xbfYkH7NCjTStOl7tSMbE_5KCYQaPSuvw_qtwzEKIVjNwQuMl4mOxumWdiumF_eE9UvUsLxgVJ5x7ZkSehECCSJP9/s8160/IMG20240103174952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilpweZGCthTdDZDA5p273kHZEl4m3JXX7B1xkUkakl2XcewrEEpYahUCErtcdhqC_QFQNd5iURGr9oZsPStwmuwVe1QhNzvCjRKH-xbfYkH7NCjTStOl7tSMbE_5KCYQaPSuvw_qtwzEKIVjNwQuMl4mOxumWdiumF_eE9UvUsLxgVJ5x7ZkSehECCSJP9/s320/IMG20240103174952.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Upcycling store bags</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOu9y8o_eZMsvrkoV4KLH-g_0Wl-Vlpg5bx7XJaBhIzf02S2zN1BOurvNxa5uFJKz_y68tQ5HbFlOol0zYVp0oMWnHOWfmq0FzsttW4GxPBznEQV_rCNFzslzv0CIAKJfJXb2nwHDcU341FqRDPLBMzhyIuJCDyZ3AZYWbSUNozozK6-DLtfcIQZHWEgyg/s8160/IMG20240125123837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOu9y8o_eZMsvrkoV4KLH-g_0Wl-Vlpg5bx7XJaBhIzf02S2zN1BOurvNxa5uFJKz_y68tQ5HbFlOol0zYVp0oMWnHOWfmq0FzsttW4GxPBznEQV_rCNFzslzv0CIAKJfJXb2nwHDcU341FqRDPLBMzhyIuJCDyZ3AZYWbSUNozozK6-DLtfcIQZHWEgyg/s320/IMG20240125123837.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A well earned morning tea</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdA_Ee9etKCdRqfurHMdmEOsL6rgS0tJMlIflTUyJzPh5OqrFmhs-vt8PpUerkBr1Qye9RG6kTK1f6fdJv_ztbo21yQqMiaS7d5W6fexuAOS-Srju2c33SvMVPKRGWt8MC93YjajFfIu8_I0Jlz0bNVDCQSeuNaA4IVwu3xE3J-c2LbFr272sk4xylR_c3/s8160/IMG20240122134945.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdA_Ee9etKCdRqfurHMdmEOsL6rgS0tJMlIflTUyJzPh5OqrFmhs-vt8PpUerkBr1Qye9RG6kTK1f6fdJv_ztbo21yQqMiaS7d5W6fexuAOS-Srju2c33SvMVPKRGWt8MC93YjajFfIu8_I0Jlz0bNVDCQSeuNaA4IVwu3xE3J-c2LbFr272sk4xylR_c3/s320/IMG20240122134945.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of many bean hauls from the garden</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO23TjiBJ6L3LWVnsMG5wye5bOW0-iSqPB2pWAgn4BZH0_TJnUWsK0EkHHExXxknOsWigIrTCBkS7kOc9sgJEsS4r0_xne391Grt-PTYG6su4_XBBVMX3-481vbIIvAMQ5UhLPHT2lb0HQgcqKlYgb-DcPGjEv7yQnoMdccpFWnCetWWOVJJ3y-ip_4gbL/s8160/IMG20231225163547.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO23TjiBJ6L3LWVnsMG5wye5bOW0-iSqPB2pWAgn4BZH0_TJnUWsK0EkHHExXxknOsWigIrTCBkS7kOc9sgJEsS4r0_xne391Grt-PTYG6su4_XBBVMX3-481vbIIvAMQ5UhLPHT2lb0HQgcqKlYgb-DcPGjEv7yQnoMdccpFWnCetWWOVJJ3y-ip_4gbL/s320/IMG20231225163547.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christmas Day with our family</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6K3eQDW_7FnVPvJp7mjiTznGsru9GsfOSXhDnxymPKvBpKmKUK-6QEwuDxUNC_9HNIN0DBZ5DWP6F-_uOtadsA1aZwDAvx8mOYWMuN59cCqir_b2vu6PLdBXtSrZ1GnkqGjBR3tSG8FYsq9y8W5abqQdmwYJdCiuBwcv4veGDWvE3k8WGUDZANM6PLCTb/s4032/received_716839943870199.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6K3eQDW_7FnVPvJp7mjiTznGsru9GsfOSXhDnxymPKvBpKmKUK-6QEwuDxUNC_9HNIN0DBZ5DWP6F-_uOtadsA1aZwDAvx8mOYWMuN59cCqir_b2vu6PLdBXtSrZ1GnkqGjBR3tSG8FYsq9y8W5abqQdmwYJdCiuBwcv4veGDWvE3k8WGUDZANM6PLCTb/s320/received_716839943870199.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cuddles with Naomi</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjiwvT6W_54WJKLoKDIBj6z6TkJCq3J2DggxkSrUEOWcKxF8azumxgfOoDYgohTBMgfpO9-503MuvicHmK1t6xDnvXhYKIJLJwKiW5ZS9UIRfqZhMjcRteA5tov0iuzWlfWMDbBPYM5GD9P6fBA2CgA7YkfQwaThW3AIu55_Qo8ng71UdWJks7RXdcLwL/s4624/IMG20240126122749.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjiwvT6W_54WJKLoKDIBj6z6TkJCq3J2DggxkSrUEOWcKxF8azumxgfOoDYgohTBMgfpO9-503MuvicHmK1t6xDnvXhYKIJLJwKiW5ZS9UIRfqZhMjcRteA5tov0iuzWlfWMDbBPYM5GD9P6fBA2CgA7YkfQwaThW3AIu55_Qo8ng71UdWJks7RXdcLwL/s320/IMG20240126122749.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Australia Day photo</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt16PRgiLaxbXuMXJLGOtmnwSdr-8uiMQL7QoifEPcq8hBKy0pM7PO0wZDErD5mmAbtlOk0To-Ixk8ABq6G5mkrdeW0pBUSfYF29XBnodoGvvm95VT34Spj0Yu8JqYNiUevlJzXVaguwFOB99yOuw2szTNrFS1_AMBHpCwLSL9AceKIWfroGQLq2C9EH7f/s8160/IMG20240107142954.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt16PRgiLaxbXuMXJLGOtmnwSdr-8uiMQL7QoifEPcq8hBKy0pM7PO0wZDErD5mmAbtlOk0To-Ixk8ABq6G5mkrdeW0pBUSfYF29XBnodoGvvm95VT34Spj0Yu8JqYNiUevlJzXVaguwFOB99yOuw2szTNrFS1_AMBHpCwLSL9AceKIWfroGQLq2C9EH7f/s320/IMG20240107142954.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making rice flour.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">How have you saved money over Christmas and the school holidays ?</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Did you get any bargains in the post Christmas sales ?</span></h3><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-87440727812072237352023-12-09T18:52:00.004+11:002023-12-09T18:52:37.015+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 9th December 2023<p> We are feeling quite organised this year in the lead up to Christmas. Most of the presents are wrapped, the Christmas lunch menu is sorted, baking is in the freezer and most of the Christmas cards have been written. I've even made a good start on next year's birthday and Christmas presents</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Here's how we saved money over the last couple of weeks -</span></i></h3><p>* I planted luffa, corn and more beans in our veggie garden.</p><p>* I baked lots of shortbread biscuits ( frozen from the freezer ) as the occasion arose. They really are much nicer than store bought, which I was a fan of previously.</p><p>* Darren made his Christmas rocky road. This year he called it ' Christmas lights '.</p><p>* I made 5 jars of relish using tomatoes from our garden that we froze last Summer.</p><p>* I bought lots of toys for our grandchildren and for charity giving at the Black Friday sale at Toymate. The Buzz Lightyear figures were only $7 each less 5% from their loyalty program.</p><p>* I sold 4 raspberry plants from our garden.</p><p>* I bulk cooked tuna pasta bake, beef stew, chop suey and salmon patties. Our freezers are full again and I won't have to cook too often leading up to Christmas. I love the ' cook once, eat four or five times ' type of cooking. I don't do a bulk cooking day but cook larger meals at dinner time and freeze the extras.</p><p>* Picked lots of silverbeet from our garden to add to many dishes for dinner.</p><p>* I planted lots of potatoes in our garden including the tiny, tiny ones. Every little bit helps and we rarely buy potatoes now.</p><p>* Darren saved some of our strawberry plants after I pulled them out earlier this year. I got tired of watering them and the bugs eating all the fruit. Darren put the plants in pots on our decking area and they've been growing well. Not a bug bite in sight.</p><p>* I bought boxes of 100 teabags for $3 each less my 10% discount at Woolworths. This is a great bargain considering most boxes of teabags are now $5 - $7 each at full price and nothing much comes on a half price sale these days. </p><p><b><span style="color: #990000;">LINKS -</span></b></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2015/06/tuna-pasta-bake.html">Tuna Pasta Bake</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2017/07/salmon-patties.html">Salmon Patties</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2016/10/chop-suey-aussie-style.html">Chop Suey</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2020/10/shortbread-biscuits.html">Shortbread Biscuits</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2015/12/tomato-relish.html">Tomato Relish</a><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4YT8RPlBUVfMI3AR3SM4lLAwTNAi_6W0-xrAYM5fHvIXxQohp_MVZeGKH5WSNAXH3W2nnp7bA7jNIxY3TeM3-wC6VxozqqbVVzsQSzyUE-xLG2FZiz9w3Vf_Nxv8zSIvx6rPBRxCZF9vk2DvXN97jQrFS7ZzxseLHXcZx1KOD4d9-Hk48Ab0ncbtakevA/s8160/IMG20231209173114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4YT8RPlBUVfMI3AR3SM4lLAwTNAi_6W0-xrAYM5fHvIXxQohp_MVZeGKH5WSNAXH3W2nnp7bA7jNIxY3TeM3-wC6VxozqqbVVzsQSzyUE-xLG2FZiz9w3Vf_Nxv8zSIvx6rPBRxCZF9vk2DvXN97jQrFS7ZzxseLHXcZx1KOD4d9-Hk48Ab0ncbtakevA/s320/IMG20231209173114.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darren's ' Christmas lights ' Rocky Road<br /><br /><br /><b>Our Christmas displays around our home</b><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh505fBQNpW9n-u5YIR_gS2F_jCAClzt98QYiw-yVcP5vgvb3LEje2U2M6R__9YkxwvaUe-5XkyqTH-aaCja122Qh8bvvvnz4kKbLwvAJN6xBcxvaBhxw15VrQO3gFXN8J4sBcsPs7AvGcbOcoDKeAoBesl9G_u1HgVUNiKMMQj2OzK7ueOsakxGLjk4vta/s8160/IMG20231209173410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh505fBQNpW9n-u5YIR_gS2F_jCAClzt98QYiw-yVcP5vgvb3LEje2U2M6R__9YkxwvaUe-5XkyqTH-aaCja122Qh8bvvvnz4kKbLwvAJN6xBcxvaBhxw15VrQO3gFXN8J4sBcsPs7AvGcbOcoDKeAoBesl9G_u1HgVUNiKMMQj2OzK7ueOsakxGLjk4vta/s320/IMG20231209173410.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dw_fkKNVm1BP_832No64AVufDFN3vUGIITWpHgmlJTPYTs2WUfx8_b4qTvT1yOmJ0omh3Nb8pkWVgLyWWtM_GW7j6YyHqTLLcP6mzKGBE1iZScKY_lg54KzJySJaEdn6lEehWodk9r2WFl5fk7S6g_-DSq6hnnhtpTVL__ju2G6An5KSCFXxPPUXPe9d/s8160/IMG20231209173346.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dw_fkKNVm1BP_832No64AVufDFN3vUGIITWpHgmlJTPYTs2WUfx8_b4qTvT1yOmJ0omh3Nb8pkWVgLyWWtM_GW7j6YyHqTLLcP6mzKGBE1iZScKY_lg54KzJySJaEdn6lEehWodk9r2WFl5fk7S6g_-DSq6hnnhtpTVL__ju2G6An5KSCFXxPPUXPe9d/s320/IMG20231209173346.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPd1JKpiwRqUWvJxCiRu0uPmcJM2iGwogbgMiZHcbQmmY1dEKc8foY0dHOXKzydlqxvnxwy5HWLe_xhruiUm1nEQIV4QypnqSI5f18jfOOHEbUjFTxcuGXDd-2Pw6a-_Hi1jt7OXPla9qi8VGke4wsBwz1uBvJUAMxlhRBrI9IDOXzYEKaTH0tvpKcUUQ3/s8160/IMG20231209173314.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPd1JKpiwRqUWvJxCiRu0uPmcJM2iGwogbgMiZHcbQmmY1dEKc8foY0dHOXKzydlqxvnxwy5HWLe_xhruiUm1nEQIV4QypnqSI5f18jfOOHEbUjFTxcuGXDd-2Pw6a-_Hi1jt7OXPla9qi8VGke4wsBwz1uBvJUAMxlhRBrI9IDOXzYEKaTH0tvpKcUUQ3/s320/IMG20231209173314.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xX6LgxJAzwLJz5E134qXU3KKKuo3_c68JrkhJrlj_fZ81AX_kzPYLS1TrqIjaosxU0ui1GwYxLr8IpRkY0uVr5dXqm5cgIx7fhhl2T1GL0saEOL3B5d9XAZqlXmKeUHwL5nY6CCzVHEYEKJxkT2srT8BR4Mv1t5k33EslN9NfFVsOi3kg7m7ztQU7ktB/s8160/IMG20231209173248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2BR71tE4f6gDbCqICGrIzW88SwBeRCUSKcMQDzYc0Tk9UkIDCKqRnh1hzOu57EVxD6GJpWIBgsaRmMFaK0x5OM4nhHfoxAesmUeSHl5CviORv18hWeox2dZpjOOiWKA9FGDA28hDgmdWJoBUymXHh1DmLmmVPfVtcHo63BS-DB-4uOJkin1PV2WXGrTpa/s8160/IMG20231209173236.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2BR71tE4f6gDbCqICGrIzW88SwBeRCUSKcMQDzYc0Tk9UkIDCKqRnh1hzOu57EVxD6GJpWIBgsaRmMFaK0x5OM4nhHfoxAesmUeSHl5CviORv18hWeox2dZpjOOiWKA9FGDA28hDgmdWJoBUymXHh1DmLmmVPfVtcHo63BS-DB-4uOJkin1PV2WXGrTpa/s320/IMG20231209173236.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRsnxgkgYtkwIJdhPBuvfCjHj_mqkjU79JMp0ZD_lGKpIc_9J2m-IcW1opu73Plx06LukOU67_YVi2qTj6QuBxciPYu3IMTIBCWALW1M2R5ctTy-f8yPxRKq38yfwqLr75G4z5f7LIkKXC4wjVk7sh3tZXYW06L-anWAcQjQDwFA6vjseeTEIgfD8doHGO/s8160/IMG20231129160725.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRsnxgkgYtkwIJdhPBuvfCjHj_mqkjU79JMp0ZD_lGKpIc_9J2m-IcW1opu73Plx06LukOU67_YVi2qTj6QuBxciPYu3IMTIBCWALW1M2R5ctTy-f8yPxRKq38yfwqLr75G4z5f7LIkKXC4wjVk7sh3tZXYW06L-anWAcQjQDwFA6vjseeTEIgfD8doHGO/s320/IMG20231129160725.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bulk cooking for the freezer</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNAql5o2iH2qem_FYbfOs0xAzqwHQk6IKFqB7HHU5gtVEk3SVDT3l9s46DZDGTLb3kIbXr7G5JZVHFWTvWkWghjuq3h4cBTho8Vnhul_u2szt7LKTgYeCUfVBaZSEMeCkAryst_x3P_tTj091SYSzRzAbAj_UYsyJCvVbqQ_nRzffeyF8JroZmSFvLzwdW/s8160/IMG20231126164006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNAql5o2iH2qem_FYbfOs0xAzqwHQk6IKFqB7HHU5gtVEk3SVDT3l9s46DZDGTLb3kIbXr7G5JZVHFWTvWkWghjuq3h4cBTho8Vnhul_u2szt7LKTgYeCUfVBaZSEMeCkAryst_x3P_tTj091SYSzRzAbAj_UYsyJCvVbqQ_nRzffeyF8JroZmSFvLzwdW/s320/IMG20231126164006.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bargain tea bags</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3vE0Vdy6bHyOembgQ5GicmL9PISy4_6bw7vTUJz1LVUQjtVzFtLzr1OClvWYsI-kv2QgItAfxwjHscabjutse88EuNMkVLG_IRuCVlkhGaDW_JmAaYqDSx8EKbddVaSnwKeq68KrVY7ssG68XREQgLzj9CVixYM60zqwgspFesnfl-X7zIdRDCyeBJPJ/s8160/IMG20231203155524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3vE0Vdy6bHyOembgQ5GicmL9PISy4_6bw7vTUJz1LVUQjtVzFtLzr1OClvWYsI-kv2QgItAfxwjHscabjutse88EuNMkVLG_IRuCVlkhGaDW_JmAaYqDSx8EKbddVaSnwKeq68KrVY7ssG68XREQgLzj9CVixYM60zqwgspFesnfl-X7zIdRDCyeBJPJ/s320/IMG20231203155524.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our granddaughter Naomi at her first Christmas party</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">How are your Christmas planning coming along ?</span></i></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">How did you save money this week ?</span></i></h2><div><i><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></i></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-25930612790346698532023-11-25T06:00:00.001+11:002023-11-25T06:00:00.145+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 25th November 2023<p>This week at the Gower Abundant Cottage has been a little slower. Darren came down with a cold just over a week ago. Then on Monday I could feel a sore throat coming on which became a cold. I had to cancel my cleaning jobs on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday I was starting to feel a bit better but had Darren help me with the cleaning job that day.</p><p>The rest of my week was spent resting as much as possible. I know it's just a cold, but I tend to get chest infections as I get older so I try to take it easy when I can.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Here's how the rest of my week looked. Unfortunately I didn't take too many photo.</span></h4><p>* We fed lots of silverbeet, weeds, grass clipping and a few crusts to our chickens.</p><p>* I baked a double batch of Easy Coconut Slice for a few occasions over the weekend and leading up to Christmas. Some of the slice was stored fresh in the pantry and the rest went into the freezer.</p><p>* Made a big pot of chunky chicken and veg soup from a chicken carcass and leftover meat. This big pot of soup gave us 13 serves. Most of this went straight into the freezer. I could almost live off this soup all year round ( except in a heatwave ).</p><p>* Dried most of the washing outside on clothes horses or the line.</p><p>* Picked the last of the mini cauliflowers growing in our veg garden. We enjoyed it steamed with other veggies for a couple of dinners.</p><p>* Saved leftover drink bottle water into a bucket in the kitchen. The water was then poured onto plants outside.</p><p>* I baked 3 loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.</p><p>* Bought TVP through a wholesaler and got 10% off the whole order on their Black Friday sale.</p><p>* Sold more hand knitted dish cloths to a friend. </p><p>* Sold an unwanted item on Marketplace.</p><p>* Made a quadruple batch of shortbread biscuit dough. I baked about 15 biscuits for Darren and I to eat for morning teas. The rest of the dough was cut into different shapes and frozen it without baking. As the occasion arises, I can get as many biscuits as I need from the freezer and bake so that they are fresh. My plan is to be as organised as I can ahead of the Christmas season so I can relax and enjoy the festivities.</p><p>* Sold lots of raspberry plants from our garden to friends and family. Growing raspberries has saved us so much money over the years. We no longer buy raspberries. I make jam for us and some to sell, I sell some of my baking with the raspberries in it and I have given raspberry plants as presents. This is the second year I've sold plants.</p><p>* Took advantage of the Black Friday sales and purchased some items from The Body Shop at 50% off. These toiletries will be for Christmas presents this year and birthday presents next year. </p><p>* I planted more beans where I could find space in the veg garden. I've noticed that frozen beans have been hard to get at the supermarket over the last few months. Growing our own and freezing excess produce will help keep our stocks up.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">LINKS -</span></span></h3><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2023/05/easy-coconut-slice.html">Easy Coconut Slice</a><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2020/10/shortbread-biscuits.html">Shortbread Biscuits</a><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/wholemeal-bread-with-extra-goodness.html">Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness</a><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2018/05/chunky-chicken-and-veggie-soup.html">Chunky Chicken And Veg Soup</a><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKK74IdV4Zk_CDPTZ4YgpchVssTmNE-NOZU6tDP9F0r_s-WmbI2U1YBCD_cAfDmLNIaY62wMzMZmp0iMk_oQUyC5_JBsaJElyNMDscz1Tnnp4PX30aZ9lapxbk1cIAHi6xflpt6hYhSIVW6LcGEFzyw3hqick_9Nl60by3LaXAc96PcTlcWodSk4q9mW5/s8160/IMG20231124145645.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKK74IdV4Zk_CDPTZ4YgpchVssTmNE-NOZU6tDP9F0r_s-WmbI2U1YBCD_cAfDmLNIaY62wMzMZmp0iMk_oQUyC5_JBsaJElyNMDscz1Tnnp4PX30aZ9lapxbk1cIAHi6xflpt6hYhSIVW6LcGEFzyw3hqick_9Nl60by3LaXAc96PcTlcWodSk4q9mW5/s320/IMG20231124145645.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting ready to bake</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVUdGPTJQPKxJlXXbmBA3XWbdAu25IFHfaqbKjUxPy9U3slKgCmpySJ42oVH_QWUuYMnlzq2PQK89Dc8mg1hHbVN23jEZ-a9XDfy1rAH8LxmYr2yf1ZmKeioTWNx3hR2WAAX3ChYcD1JdQaGKlcEUz19BMWkyXpDf9G1t_n1sG2eyGh-YzXa5Qy8kcPrK0/s8160/IMG20231124130336.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVUdGPTJQPKxJlXXbmBA3XWbdAu25IFHfaqbKjUxPy9U3slKgCmpySJ42oVH_QWUuYMnlzq2PQK89Dc8mg1hHbVN23jEZ-a9XDfy1rAH8LxmYr2yf1ZmKeioTWNx3hR2WAAX3ChYcD1JdQaGKlcEUz19BMWkyXpDf9G1t_n1sG2eyGh-YzXa5Qy8kcPrK0/w242-h320/IMG20231124130336.jpg" width="242" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdWbE_5bJ_oTCh3SnLKkT9HWaIyQKr3q5ENO3wqykd1Ub7h7_ru_mdnjDSCKwcfhzQG0TAPyw2dVqmA-PdhQ9jdX-7ligp4lGTG0_HLUUlP1exYyL37wmVDSE1C8uUynRMF_SqNyv_895Oco9hjf_ro8f-WeTpuC1aTqBq6QWpcstkCpx0P6EBVXcsxsT/s8160/IMG20231123133418.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdWbE_5bJ_oTCh3SnLKkT9HWaIyQKr3q5ENO3wqykd1Ub7h7_ru_mdnjDSCKwcfhzQG0TAPyw2dVqmA-PdhQ9jdX-7ligp4lGTG0_HLUUlP1exYyL37wmVDSE1C8uUynRMF_SqNyv_895Oco9hjf_ro8f-WeTpuC1aTqBq6QWpcstkCpx0P6EBVXcsxsT/s320/IMG20231123133418.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Selling raspberry plants. I still have a few left</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2tCd-2MUzxYcOaxg-CwBCv7UvKMHBok3HYDaDUpvprIksQJtaDqJIqs1zKBO8AzlodC1kbj5FDY92vI0h3t7D9mQvT9Am_WPf65Zz7PgNEhMu8cizYPeUmKjOClpy-zoC4IDEy7tub5xDXBDF340UMSspWYV_c2FXGFyA8OS9J3oQatLQlAd6ohmPAKVr/s8160/IMG20231111112537.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2tCd-2MUzxYcOaxg-CwBCv7UvKMHBok3HYDaDUpvprIksQJtaDqJIqs1zKBO8AzlodC1kbj5FDY92vI0h3t7D9mQvT9Am_WPf65Zz7PgNEhMu8cizYPeUmKjOClpy-zoC4IDEy7tub5xDXBDF340UMSspWYV_c2FXGFyA8OS9J3oQatLQlAd6ohmPAKVr/s320/IMG20231111112537.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hanging towels for sale $8 each</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">Have you purchased anything at the Black Friday sales ?</span></i></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">How did you save money this week ?</span></i></h2><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-15150164620295358612023-11-18T11:03:00.005+11:002023-11-18T11:03:43.787+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 18th November 2023<p> This week we've spent lots of time in the garden tidying up, planting, mulching and harvesting. With all the work we've been putting in, we hope to rest more during the warmer months and keep on top of the weeds and watering.</p><p>I've just about finished the Christmas present shopping with only stocking stuffers ( food ) left to buy. I'm waiting until our favourite chocolates and biscuits come on sale.</p><p>Here's what else we've been up to -</p><p>* Picked lots of fresh Spring rosemary tips from our bush in the garden. I've filled another 2 paper bags with the tips and it's now hanging up to dry.</p><p>* Darren and I planted our Summer veggie garden last Sunday. We've planted Luffa, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, snow peas, carrots, more potatoes and zucchini. In a few weeks time we'll plant lots of corn.</p><p>* Knitted another dish cloth for my kitchen. I find it relaxing to knit while I'm watching tv and resting.</p><p>* Collected a few eggs from our chicken.</p><p>* Picked more lemons and mandarins from our trees.</p><p>* Recycled old Christmas cards by cutting them down to size, matting them and gluing to new blank cards. I then add a little bling to make them pop. I now have enough cards for the next 2 or 3 years.</p><p>* Took a few cuttings from a plant growing in our garden that we love. We've successfully grown a few from cuttings previously and planted out in our garden. Maybe if these cuttings take, we can give a couple away as presents.</p><p>* I found a few freebie / volunteer plants in our garden. I dug them up and rehomed them to fill in gaps.</p><p>* I dug up and potted 5 or 6 raspberry plants growing in odd places in our garden. If the plants survive, I'll sell them on Marketplace.</p><p>* I made a bulk amount of chicken pasta bake using leftover meat from a roast chicken. I added potatoes and silverbeet from our garden to bulk it out. We ate some for dinner that night and the rest was portioned into casserole dishes and frozen ( without baking in the oven ). </p><p>* I sold quite a few double sided kitchen cloths, hanging towels, knitted face washers, jam and knitted dish cloths to a cleaning client and a couple of FB friends. If you are interested in buying any of my crafts, please visit my FB pages Wendy Gower or My Abundant Life to see what's available.</p><p>* I visited a local op shop called Basic Treasures where everything in the store is $1. I picked up lots of toiletries,, kids baking equipment, cleaning supplies and a sleepsuit for our grandbaby. All were brand new. Many of these goodies will be put in family Christmas hampers over the next couple of years.</p><p>* Made up a bottle of foaming handwash using the last of Darren's shower gel. Darren had already added water to use it up but the pump wasn't picking up the last little bit. I added extra water and poured it into our foaming hand wash bottle. The soap color even matches the label. </p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #38761d;">In the garden</span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV_k2zpyC80pzoZAd9XV5n_lOjIyiJU4hfsq-cT28Z8UpJ2kH71cxVv6qVRheZ0zUvqqpKjmXuy5XuNfxWMwlhnIvRb4smU9wM5Rrrj5UDZsx__DbuUFPDukauRUmQqZNBZXCpubaOPzJ09hHX8KDpBQqyCRFGYl-IYYVAYreuv8zxf5hpKV1Rphtri_lx/s8160/IMG20231115140424.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV_k2zpyC80pzoZAd9XV5n_lOjIyiJU4hfsq-cT28Z8UpJ2kH71cxVv6qVRheZ0zUvqqpKjmXuy5XuNfxWMwlhnIvRb4smU9wM5Rrrj5UDZsx__DbuUFPDukauRUmQqZNBZXCpubaOPzJ09hHX8KDpBQqyCRFGYl-IYYVAYreuv8zxf5hpKV1Rphtri_lx/s320/IMG20231115140424.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnqkjdPXk-XeFXYLzQVBAcGRGr11igBXz9-gl66HDriBrQEgssniHAl4c_XEfCc1FRB-oQxgDujFsL3mkRKwiNmutBtwXLX37nRP2FWWeCosVUSg1YGFkuHmwYkps4vEgUoVOLUK2gwSGJoDd8TJjQ1pYFsTrnK3fNgQuESrH4dmMlON1cLvBUC_IdlEzn/s8160/IMG20231111135855.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnqkjdPXk-XeFXYLzQVBAcGRGr11igBXz9-gl66HDriBrQEgssniHAl4c_XEfCc1FRB-oQxgDujFsL3mkRKwiNmutBtwXLX37nRP2FWWeCosVUSg1YGFkuHmwYkps4vEgUoVOLUK2gwSGJoDd8TJjQ1pYFsTrnK3fNgQuESrH4dmMlON1cLvBUC_IdlEzn/s320/IMG20231111135855.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdeXOQUV2nMXq82RFvTD88oKe1dv7IF77_TVX6dOObnbf9LGR8A8h2EU_6Nz6qL4dnZur_Zm7Ot6Vsbq_EbbmtGkRXm7UOBU_RmuEb672_ivyRYdzVRdExFv4LHopaOVrI48qtILQVEMI2UCxWHqYucrZTg-6ZUvb81KB-fj9A6DCBSSdWJIM9MdY_5oL/s8160/IMG20231115140316.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdeXOQUV2nMXq82RFvTD88oKe1dv7IF77_TVX6dOObnbf9LGR8A8h2EU_6Nz6qL4dnZur_Zm7Ot6Vsbq_EbbmtGkRXm7UOBU_RmuEb672_ivyRYdzVRdExFv4LHopaOVrI48qtILQVEMI2UCxWHqYucrZTg-6ZUvb81KB-fj9A6DCBSSdWJIM9MdY_5oL/s320/IMG20231115140316.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIDQJLY_yoDxKAew86kAWMH6K0rSmIWFThc-DtlSJPptqIJUOOuzaXh4IKRuMo3UH653ybtImg4OjrUdotwnMKRmCVYQurY7XStdOxELb1h99yXe_McnIKNHsTC6RkJZyoh_0oDyzujqOEn928Dsj4oDUEAqkru9uRqGVAIkB80FEtiblowjhQXXBCqJo/s8160/IMG20231115140352.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIDQJLY_yoDxKAew86kAWMH6K0rSmIWFThc-DtlSJPptqIJUOOuzaXh4IKRuMo3UH653ybtImg4OjrUdotwnMKRmCVYQurY7XStdOxELb1h99yXe_McnIKNHsTC6RkJZyoh_0oDyzujqOEn928Dsj4oDUEAqkru9uRqGVAIkB80FEtiblowjhQXXBCqJo/s320/IMG20231115140352.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;">From the garden</span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9VUvG2s21DSThyFQyi1zm0hy5vIuIGckJvMAXTNI-9Hs6bIqy5XK5ngWXaXnV2wF7F8iKog_wwUAtgGD0QJcv9qNw4Bk4B_hmTEtwtnXmDCvGSq8TQSdnwVMRXPomSokWBGrn6upf5mkhX54cLW_UtkyYAf0NuhH8Ww2IGJtLuoZ7SoHFvNtLkbY5-Gw4/s8160/IMG20231115140249.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9VUvG2s21DSThyFQyi1zm0hy5vIuIGckJvMAXTNI-9Hs6bIqy5XK5ngWXaXnV2wF7F8iKog_wwUAtgGD0QJcv9qNw4Bk4B_hmTEtwtnXmDCvGSq8TQSdnwVMRXPomSokWBGrn6upf5mkhX54cLW_UtkyYAf0NuhH8Ww2IGJtLuoZ7SoHFvNtLkbY5-Gw4/w242-h320/IMG20231115140249.jpg" width="242" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjRt8suVKALVJinMvxpNk4KhLZB4rBPte7OOav5W1aAW08EKKv4SXbrH8XxoEqxsTz-EGbxSLQCuKQhVYf8PQ4bM9MJIXmnP7grVi_PNY0PJ11i3am7qjMj-_G2KNCxvUiqtQcS7CGotmNIRWoJBSRUBnoHXCTWslhDLLjHHk7ARjc2OmQX9YPqtkHqVM/s8160/IMG20231112145817.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjRt8suVKALVJinMvxpNk4KhLZB4rBPte7OOav5W1aAW08EKKv4SXbrH8XxoEqxsTz-EGbxSLQCuKQhVYf8PQ4bM9MJIXmnP7grVi_PNY0PJ11i3am7qjMj-_G2KNCxvUiqtQcS7CGotmNIRWoJBSRUBnoHXCTWslhDLLjHHk7ARjc2OmQX9YPqtkHqVM/w242-h320/IMG20231112145817.jpg" width="242" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCktwwFEEq7QhP5ZXYRgQFP-Wk1rDAUZ0P4dUD8y9d_69cyqEjvm5wbpbnLsNkMdN-kHjahSC95awJDyYyho2-C9C6MEZqNX6VbPvlqbU9pfzXqJiCkxkmTI_RfQjkDfZxtXkrrCzWef5Evora427NNuaCB0XdhrhscOxMl9Yzds515e2S7zUQqkPbxHpI/s8160/IMG20231115140102.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCktwwFEEq7QhP5ZXYRgQFP-Wk1rDAUZ0P4dUD8y9d_69cyqEjvm5wbpbnLsNkMdN-kHjahSC95awJDyYyho2-C9C6MEZqNX6VbPvlqbU9pfzXqJiCkxkmTI_RfQjkDfZxtXkrrCzWef5Evora427NNuaCB0XdhrhscOxMl9Yzds515e2S7zUQqkPbxHpI/w320-h242/IMG20231115140102.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">$1 each op shop bargains</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSh85OOs1_JNRWln9TZqnJ1tk2IqeTVEP4zgm2Zd9M84rqufDxAnSLLjXwtONNeYzRp_mKETGXTlC4Dtq__s4YVN9ydLhgxHS-FNLXce0nhsDQgUXgkmTyYc9HfdbuM5UupNbguPmO6H9Q8irpZpf_CtPvFJHjvWIJ-duIQs8mI6JCbQmEmTE2Yj4n7BGF/s8160/IMG20231115180539.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSh85OOs1_JNRWln9TZqnJ1tk2IqeTVEP4zgm2Zd9M84rqufDxAnSLLjXwtONNeYzRp_mKETGXTlC4Dtq__s4YVN9ydLhgxHS-FNLXce0nhsDQgUXgkmTyYc9HfdbuM5UupNbguPmO6H9Q8irpZpf_CtPvFJHjvWIJ-duIQs8mI6JCbQmEmTE2Yj4n7BGF/s320/IMG20231115180539.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Op shop haul. Everything in the photo was $1 each<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rD5QDN4-n8o09DHQoWjzWgldvUN6lrdDlcJEROkOEEhGrq1_gj92IT_R_-2ZTsUsgXuhOY5CGyjl58YCdr-ZOt49QfFN72j3esD5rhQtGhvri7tSkeNV55mTcX661ASJd0Y20GZhW6GKMoP64MTzx3bhJ8J_354gfO2myv1cbWN6ZVCXXzTzhNkPqVrb/s8160/IMG20231111150531.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rD5QDN4-n8o09DHQoWjzWgldvUN6lrdDlcJEROkOEEhGrq1_gj92IT_R_-2ZTsUsgXuhOY5CGyjl58YCdr-ZOt49QfFN72j3esD5rhQtGhvri7tSkeNV55mTcX661ASJd0Y20GZhW6GKMoP64MTzx3bhJ8J_354gfO2myv1cbWN6ZVCXXzTzhNkPqVrb/s320/IMG20231111150531.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Double sided kitchen cloth in use</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8puobBxoskPN7E7iIUPvM7TJHxmfx1okcJ79VhlKS0fIj27IfcZUA3NwNsT62MQXrninrJ889DHTiW67QopznSpI6ybNAMuo7o8vCjKQSzRlKq4_EHPRRw-hJR9aw-KcTTksYAnwujFgCRUE4pRBNS5uQQhMMdYek92MGfYKwAp2sfyBDQJpxM5PNIJM/s8160/IMG20231114101916.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8puobBxoskPN7E7iIUPvM7TJHxmfx1okcJ79VhlKS0fIj27IfcZUA3NwNsT62MQXrninrJ889DHTiW67QopznSpI6ybNAMuo7o8vCjKQSzRlKq4_EHPRRw-hJR9aw-KcTTksYAnwujFgCRUE4pRBNS5uQQhMMdYek92MGfYKwAp2sfyBDQJpxM5PNIJM/s320/IMG20231114101916.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One side microfibre, one side cotton.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1NS4t6lRNqDjvjmMXeD1xNWWX6c8s_n-AtWaP6jssDZVytFNQO_CfrHHCppU6i4jhhPiERwinEYUmxJFXWFb_XOp7UqRJD-Tn03XFthoyWJLB8xgK9bZOwb7wCvCbciE-yAERzYsAdPrgev1PpFNQCJll0yXYROSdS_JiG7Qwf5L36Rb4zSPRpbvThiau/s8160/IMG20231118082840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1NS4t6lRNqDjvjmMXeD1xNWWX6c8s_n-AtWaP6jssDZVytFNQO_CfrHHCppU6i4jhhPiERwinEYUmxJFXWFb_XOp7UqRJD-Tn03XFthoyWJLB8xgK9bZOwb7wCvCbciE-yAERzYsAdPrgev1PpFNQCJll0yXYROSdS_JiG7Qwf5L36Rb4zSPRpbvThiau/w242-h320/IMG20231118082840.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shower gel foaming hand wash.</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">How are you going with your Christmas shopping ?</span></i></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">How have you saved money this week ?</span></i></h2><div><i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></i></div><br />Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-31884739396296657622023-11-11T06:00:00.002+11:002023-11-11T13:04:12.972+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 11th November 2023<p> This week's frugal list is a list of ways we've saved money over the last few months when I was absent from blog writing. I feel like I've kicked major goals lately so that when Summer comes, I'll be able to relax more.</p><p>Here's the latest list -</p><p>* Baked pumpkin scones with frozen pumpkin puree from earlier this year when pumpkin was cheap. The scones were enjoyed for morning teas and extras were frozen for future eating.</p><p>* Darren made pork sausage rolls. He added potato and silverbeet from our garden to bulk them out.</p><p>* Picked lemons from our tree and froze the juice.</p><p>* Gratefully received extra groceries from Megan when the supermarket accidently delivered the same order twice.</p><p>* I made dish drainer cloths from microfibre cloths and cotton material. These are used to drain delicate items that need handwashing. This prevents accidental chipping.</p><p>* I picked up a couple of items of clothing from Savers when they had a 50% off sale on a couple of months ago.</p><p>* I made a big batch of raspberry and strawberry jam. The raspberries were homegrown and the strawberries were a bargain price bought last Summer and frozen.</p><p>* Baked and sold some muffins to a cleaning client.</p><p>* Charged the vacuum cleaner and Darren's shaver on sunny days.</p><p>* Gratefully received lots of plastic and paper shopping bags from a friend. It's been well over 25 years since I've bought bin liners.</p><p>* Darren and I used a gift card to go to the movies.</p><p>* I stocked up on butter using the Woolworths 10% off offer and a $10 in rewards money. Most of the butter was put in the freezer.</p><p>* I made 2 + years worth of laundry liquid for $8.50. I now add a good squirt of Dynamo laundry liquid to the big bucket of homemade liquid. This seems to help stabilise the liquid so that it doesn't clump as much. I also dilute the liquid down even further than the original recipe. Each 2 litre bottle has 500mls of liquid and 1.5 litres of water. I do this because I now have a front loading washing machine and any laundry liquid used must be fairly runny. </p><p>* I picked lots of rosemary from our bush. It's currently hanging up in paper bags to dry. I'll then blitz it into a powder so that it sticks better to roast potatoes.</p><p>* Gratefully received enough mulch for FREE from a ' buy nothing new ' FB page. Not knowing how big this mulch pile was or how many people would be grabbing it, I couldn't wait until Darren was home to go and lad up the car. So I grabbed 3 x large Ikea bags and 2 x 60 litre buckets and raced over to the location. I made 2 trips there that day ( only 7 minutes away ) and was able to get enough to mulch all our flower beds with some left over. This was a saving of maybe $200 or more. </p><p>* I resprayed some outdoor side tables that were looking a bit rough. I used Rustoleum spray paint with is also a primer.</p><p>* I made a big bowl of egg custard with milk we couldn't use up quick enough.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;">LINKS - </span></h3><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/11/pumpkin-scones.html">Pumpkin scones</a></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/09/lunchbox-chocolate-choc-chip-muffins.html">Chocolate choc chip muffins</a></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2021/09/homemade-laundry-liquid.html">Laundry liquid</a></p><p><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2016/12/egg-custard.html">Egg Custard</a></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">I just uploaded photos of handmade items I'm selling on both my Facebook pages. Please go over and have a look. You might find something to buy for Christmas</span></i></h3><p><br /></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSplEMPVFRcMzxYx9kaj-DrXMTKabQLjU6QJFkcQhvb3AelReCpiLHEKkuK0-3pQlKmb83KOBmUwswdwPj3DyR5xndA5QoldEY1q5n9xN9dFx-kj-trN1BArDuOgKTo4fDpjL5a0ISl12BSL1cQLQuVNXe_vOCZ43mem4KryM5zb8Hk6a_0QUW9askEe0D/s8160/IMG20231103160715.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSplEMPVFRcMzxYx9kaj-DrXMTKabQLjU6QJFkcQhvb3AelReCpiLHEKkuK0-3pQlKmb83KOBmUwswdwPj3DyR5xndA5QoldEY1q5n9xN9dFx-kj-trN1BArDuOgKTo4fDpjL5a0ISl12BSL1cQLQuVNXe_vOCZ43mem4KryM5zb8Hk6a_0QUW9askEe0D/w320-h242/IMG20231103160715.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rosemary from our garden</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPWW5TjRFFsGaHoDM6Ndm3XLJcbkM2jf1TkGapbRLKxbIDLmTTvA8Q01SKf92rhm3bV1qQm2dH226N7dvYNp0MjbGa07pZG29sSsmqOvU-e7N0tRbppbTKWyZh-5_pdTkEfV8eIk2GvnvSjpitWIdR5lxFFqC8UO3rcW7JPAJZuWbSKEog3e2CNL7sBSs/s8160/IMG20231108182747.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPWW5TjRFFsGaHoDM6Ndm3XLJcbkM2jf1TkGapbRLKxbIDLmTTvA8Q01SKf92rhm3bV1qQm2dH226N7dvYNp0MjbGa07pZG29sSsmqOvU-e7N0tRbppbTKWyZh-5_pdTkEfV8eIk2GvnvSjpitWIdR5lxFFqC8UO3rcW7JPAJZuWbSKEog3e2CNL7sBSs/s320/IMG20231108182747.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The leftover free mulch</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEsj-sJD9v9yF3xO6DxVxpw3Uv9a24OHxdIpWRW26F66IFejE37Tf7lnBcCbc1itXzDvn4q24WH0EWZONkBpCM0DqfoIZkdjZOEO-ay2sI1Fb9ZH1YoGD4pxOhPLbgOBYetiWepeHwE9nUY3P2IJ4-dElXdUbaCU0LeIX0WiQNz_lpncGnQQQriiHfbAhY/s8160/IMG20231109171915.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEsj-sJD9v9yF3xO6DxVxpw3Uv9a24OHxdIpWRW26F66IFejE37Tf7lnBcCbc1itXzDvn4q24WH0EWZONkBpCM0DqfoIZkdjZOEO-ay2sI1Fb9ZH1YoGD4pxOhPLbgOBYetiWepeHwE9nUY3P2IJ4-dElXdUbaCU0LeIX0WiQNz_lpncGnQQQriiHfbAhY/s320/IMG20231109171915.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade laundry liquid</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE2iEEIBnlenU1wKjizlwxeG91mlPR6rS2OoMuzEkZP1TADP5rPFjy4OW54ryvnN_kfNA61uTIZ7bmpcjIKS2e6oSRod42rkw-LyqIhLWEqbAYlNalPwmltPwXXwgtEWdVCajYDHRyxy9eRnt9mXqNE_IUKs8RBfHF5LtTPp4HqEU4r-vhVtLfoHPT9rt6/s8160/IMG20231109140107.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE2iEEIBnlenU1wKjizlwxeG91mlPR6rS2OoMuzEkZP1TADP5rPFjy4OW54ryvnN_kfNA61uTIZ7bmpcjIKS2e6oSRod42rkw-LyqIhLWEqbAYlNalPwmltPwXXwgtEWdVCajYDHRyxy9eRnt9mXqNE_IUKs8RBfHF5LtTPp4HqEU4r-vhVtLfoHPT9rt6/s320/IMG20231109140107.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Egg custard</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkD2lXF6LZdHO_OAAHhYfhiV7bemT9o1JBUl7f2S1McI7sU87KmuOzuFvELFWlB8HIxQM84hW9A-nEqvzdcS_w3LNYMGE5-DudVGxj8DzfocrhiVd0d9oc-zIa7g1SW0qcAByBqw2nAxKvYgq5if8MqaixoxRBIremLm74p1IOUGDxJzlWaGuS7i-bUE-/s8160/IMG20231104112336.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkD2lXF6LZdHO_OAAHhYfhiV7bemT9o1JBUl7f2S1McI7sU87KmuOzuFvELFWlB8HIxQM84hW9A-nEqvzdcS_w3LNYMGE5-DudVGxj8DzfocrhiVd0d9oc-zIa7g1SW0qcAByBqw2nAxKvYgq5if8MqaixoxRBIremLm74p1IOUGDxJzlWaGuS7i-bUE-/s320/IMG20231104112336.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Revamped side tables</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #38761d;"> In the garden</span></h3><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6F5oQEuX5YuVoanTtOjmKjyox_2v1wttRM8nz2pdyGm2uJ6N-EQY_GjGg4zHpqb5zUwq4_UlQOvqOysRN9_vpcLMf3x0WMpP_JNqfF_VxTsCBzmBX0S_JZ8c4O88YUxeh15f3LLGKHFs12u_9mmvbJkxNkHehtn2QuRs5kPD6mZqI-GwihTAseea0pgLI/s8160/IMG20231104112409.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6F5oQEuX5YuVoanTtOjmKjyox_2v1wttRM8nz2pdyGm2uJ6N-EQY_GjGg4zHpqb5zUwq4_UlQOvqOysRN9_vpcLMf3x0WMpP_JNqfF_VxTsCBzmBX0S_JZ8c4O88YUxeh15f3LLGKHFs12u_9mmvbJkxNkHehtn2QuRs5kPD6mZqI-GwihTAseea0pgLI/s320/IMG20231104112409.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXtonkP6h1BvF0SWfZmZxs5Wpl0t_tSk-_G-FSiBw_JkUinbYVA1RJr8m5Uw2P1fi9GWFDWHWaNHHMn_889cDWpsQqrYJccYPg7hFhWZgL6rohzxhzQnuFN5FSpQBC-XMJtMJf3TgfJw37KbsjPXTrRJPdMJJWBu4ND10A9d4iqCiyiBMZOhFFRPc7iJo/s8160/IMG20231108150718.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXtonkP6h1BvF0SWfZmZxs5Wpl0t_tSk-_G-FSiBw_JkUinbYVA1RJr8m5Uw2P1fi9GWFDWHWaNHHMn_889cDWpsQqrYJccYPg7hFhWZgL6rohzxhzQnuFN5FSpQBC-XMJtMJf3TgfJw37KbsjPXTrRJPdMJJWBu4ND10A9d4iqCiyiBMZOhFFRPc7iJo/s320/IMG20231108150718.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU0glmdKj7XUJDDmlrNQ757H_FSNFAGYpMHzWJlLQTmg7T3u6EExWcOUdiwG2sdExokTjILuOPLePTVof0zp2teEY6VUoA2iiD6rrS6ZJaVzdnvrku13NaGR-SwL0JEuPG45Dtc1_FMeY-T-Jp9NImoydNgO_qVoqiyOB0eRlap_LN0J4zhacdUjT8I0un/s8160/IMG20231104112236.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU0glmdKj7XUJDDmlrNQ757H_FSNFAGYpMHzWJlLQTmg7T3u6EExWcOUdiwG2sdExokTjILuOPLePTVof0zp2teEY6VUoA2iiD6rrS6ZJaVzdnvrku13NaGR-SwL0JEuPG45Dtc1_FMeY-T-Jp9NImoydNgO_qVoqiyOB0eRlap_LN0J4zhacdUjT8I0un/s320/IMG20231104112236.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcMb5SttwbrA8oJ0sKKARNi6SAiG2l2Vr-wLlS3AUC6brh1psEQYZja9V-xhRXWig-imrg1uXCsYsU05OgVAfie37oxxFuDXR5TGC0v_gP7m9uAKe__FYANTpbE3Mrxaf_aVmK4daEgAllx3h9kqFQENK0XKZVoRsmGvB4Sfw6LemMmgf2wqEuZd-V4ni/s8160/IMG20231108150908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcMb5SttwbrA8oJ0sKKARNi6SAiG2l2Vr-wLlS3AUC6brh1psEQYZja9V-xhRXWig-imrg1uXCsYsU05OgVAfie37oxxFuDXR5TGC0v_gP7m9uAKe__FYANTpbE3Mrxaf_aVmK4daEgAllx3h9kqFQENK0XKZVoRsmGvB4Sfw6LemMmgf2wqEuZd-V4ni/s320/IMG20231108150908.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">Do you make your own laundry powder or liquid ?</span></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">How have you saved money this week ?</span></h2><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-46592536983482181912023-11-04T10:55:00.003+11:002023-11-04T12:00:43.536+11:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 4th November 2023<p> Thankyou to everyone for your kind words regarding last week's post. All is good in our world right now and we've had calmness and normality for over 2 weeks - YAY !!!</p><p>Although we are a little late, we've started preparing our vegetable garden beds for Spring planting. We still have silverbeet growing in abundance and we pick it regularly for our own meals as well as giving the chickens a treat. </p><p>Here's a list of what we've been up to over the last few weeks ( or months ).</p><p>* I made a batch of coconut, olive and rice bran oil soap from scratch. The ' batter ' was divided in half to make natural soap. The other half became colored / fragranced soap. I've already sold 4 soaps to a friend and many will be given as presents at Christmas. </p><p>* Dug up well over 5 kilos of ' free ' potatoes from our garden. The starter potatoes were sprouting supermarket potatoes we planted wrist deep in a raised bed. Others just popped up unannounced.</p><p>* Picked silverbeet, sugar snap peas and cauliflower from our garden to provide veggies for our meals.</p><p>* Made enough air freshener / room fragrance to last the next 12 - 18 months.</p><p>* Baked wholemeal bread rolls for Darren's work lunches.</p><p>* Dug up 6 small raspberry plants that I will be selling in a couple of weeks. </p><p>* Sold a couple of unwanted items on Marketplace.</p><p>* I've knitted quite a few cotton dishcloths over the last few months as a way of relaxing. Most will be for use in my kitchen and some will be given as presents.</p><p>* Picked flowers from our garden on numerous occasions. The colors we have growing are just gorgeous and really do brighten my day.</p><p>* Found quite a few gifts and craft items at Savers ' op shop '.. I always use a 20% discount coupon when buying to help lower the cost even further. Op shop prices have more than doubled over the last couple of years so it really pays to donate and receive a discount coupon.</p><p>* Made a big bottle of vanilla extract. It's now in the pantry ' brewing ' and will be ready to use in a couple of months.</p><p>* Made brown sugar from scratch.</p><p>* Gratefully received lots of gift bags and some glass jars ( for jam making ) from a few people.</p><p>* Baked wholemeal bread with extra goodness.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgodUaic09WGHZ_tIOMhSInBjcj9Tm9MtnuSu6UKRQr3yKmsZMpVGdCZhJGlzrY4FYMqF9siOgDgtFpeh3-nJTD3S1mioKDj-8Sc-AifY4eymmr72-4nmcAvX47j2oec0Ia3MHObL1Md3xVgc81hUnlHaS0Z1_2KrKQK4BV8YAbus8sbH-LkNJIa_MLK6hc/s8160/IMG20231103160305.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgodUaic09WGHZ_tIOMhSInBjcj9Tm9MtnuSu6UKRQr3yKmsZMpVGdCZhJGlzrY4FYMqF9siOgDgtFpeh3-nJTD3S1mioKDj-8Sc-AifY4eymmr72-4nmcAvX47j2oec0Ia3MHObL1Md3xVgc81hUnlHaS0Z1_2KrKQK4BV8YAbus8sbH-LkNJIa_MLK6hc/s320/IMG20231103160305.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade air freshener</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFj8740cA-_2PwqJqWdSvlZishAuhOY6VKf_lWzA4rZPeAu_9oMzqgfZkClQIbtQg9Is0_1jyNAcskA3lOjiH-r2jAF5UHvJQFcrfKeaNWD1euPmhP1MZXtc-oLqA8ktPUNKk-woflvM6ST7hDp4uqum1rNhpHqYSkTkV8azSIgfE0toGQweNvJoqpRS8y/s8160/IMG20231103162220.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFj8740cA-_2PwqJqWdSvlZishAuhOY6VKf_lWzA4rZPeAu_9oMzqgfZkClQIbtQg9Is0_1jyNAcskA3lOjiH-r2jAF5UHvJQFcrfKeaNWD1euPmhP1MZXtc-oLqA8ktPUNKk-woflvM6ST7hDp4uqum1rNhpHqYSkTkV8azSIgfE0toGQweNvJoqpRS8y/s320/IMG20231103162220.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Handmade soap</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVYuVHqd-gj61yPmXAS05nn8Lh-D5bIDC1Tw0hXnbD28eaNgJvNpUAzAad9IfKa2ipWmGMca8ovTZssnmoT03OoR8_cMndRmATDRCifeLzsRZg0oMtFn4JdBnPdPaArG7Q9KiDdUR0kapraw3txAhsexD-NoTE9BoHAaNsooH0YA7Z5upSLTf8_joaSlB/s8160/IMG20231103162309.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVYuVHqd-gj61yPmXAS05nn8Lh-D5bIDC1Tw0hXnbD28eaNgJvNpUAzAad9IfKa2ipWmGMca8ovTZssnmoT03OoR8_cMndRmATDRCifeLzsRZg0oMtFn4JdBnPdPaArG7Q9KiDdUR0kapraw3txAhsexD-NoTE9BoHAaNsooH0YA7Z5upSLTf8_joaSlB/s320/IMG20231103162309.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Natural handmade soap</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuEHRSAFZIV5t91jkZCdEUZRrMQHKhmyAbxrDW6k1OZCTFZoAG1vDCVBd7cgfY_zHZpPHBCUQRjbX2jXQSclwBmzYc7npOS9Sgr5mJG2xsDTe5loubrpUFvoxXZ5lhHaEu9zerb8o29aTrLzP3P5vhioOaBC-nBMwuTKWw8e-O6jyhX26cku8ZS4WUPoa/s8160/IMG20231103162354.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6144" data-original-width="8160" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuEHRSAFZIV5t91jkZCdEUZRrMQHKhmyAbxrDW6k1OZCTFZoAG1vDCVBd7cgfY_zHZpPHBCUQRjbX2jXQSclwBmzYc7npOS9Sgr5mJG2xsDTe5loubrpUFvoxXZ5lhHaEu9zerb8o29aTrLzP3P5vhioOaBC-nBMwuTKWw8e-O6jyhX26cku8ZS4WUPoa/s320/IMG20231103162354.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUlyvkyfCM0JSSxwXeX6SAuAu6L3MDQkl6GAMWtEm4I8V2c8LQROMa-tUY9i1sd4sef03wGXAW_03nAf-qmmW0NioFOUtkAMYBsELKSiyHEF6G5HRHxa2OW94PquJrH0CLMVF60eOwrD_K65_HVE7hyphenhyphenKNTsjQ4UipvFjUsVMylr8Ew9BjTj4E8zQt3zLT/s8160/IMG20230925171820.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUlyvkyfCM0JSSxwXeX6SAuAu6L3MDQkl6GAMWtEm4I8V2c8LQROMa-tUY9i1sd4sef03wGXAW_03nAf-qmmW0NioFOUtkAMYBsELKSiyHEF6G5HRHxa2OW94PquJrH0CLMVF60eOwrD_K65_HVE7hyphenhyphenKNTsjQ4UipvFjUsVMylr8Ew9BjTj4E8zQt3zLT/s320/IMG20230925171820.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From our garden</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMFpPruiCNKNqIOKEaQoVhMF0NhY9dA1PdTpdAsVTgRsNvheH90gMgt2xGDra1GiOJ2q5hjvV6GEp0PYPM3hQCRrFr8jcLE-I5YyS1cgKZgX6jrvhiQEg63DCt04A3iw1P1kw50j6NGTxUmuQV3AfSV_sLAUektuxIPb6xeZwj8vPLA4gf6b4W43TvX9j/s8160/IMG20231101153628.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMFpPruiCNKNqIOKEaQoVhMF0NhY9dA1PdTpdAsVTgRsNvheH90gMgt2xGDra1GiOJ2q5hjvV6GEp0PYPM3hQCRrFr8jcLE-I5YyS1cgKZgX6jrvhiQEg63DCt04A3iw1P1kw50j6NGTxUmuQV3AfSV_sLAUektuxIPb6xeZwj8vPLA4gf6b4W43TvX9j/s320/IMG20231101153628.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The latest potato haul</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTxVDzUHV0GzggEK2_s72WlNXXnNHLnN3h7_vTziltEeoAHK1lzco3aelMv6rvGJSyi-Sbchqw7kDma2ygpkiX9rpecomDaOkHLhpRNrIWjUBOiC7uTkLLHtyjqPl6yZiyQTCwyJj85NF5ePTJngUWGLV4V-CLxnpgGTa0cuaKuhkfBciy3WOnnMduUOmx/s8160/IMG20231102144050.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTxVDzUHV0GzggEK2_s72WlNXXnNHLnN3h7_vTziltEeoAHK1lzco3aelMv6rvGJSyi-Sbchqw7kDma2ygpkiX9rpecomDaOkHLhpRNrIWjUBOiC7uTkLLHtyjqPl6yZiyQTCwyJj85NF5ePTJngUWGLV4V-CLxnpgGTa0cuaKuhkfBciy3WOnnMduUOmx/s320/IMG20231102144050.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Huge potatoes</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggn5ayksYgLQsaXa5IYEce7weNfaKkZk5xDPCoz6PtlO2bBlTC22bv8GBYu2b4H5fW8CYfpGmbVkWmTHRJGtboJSvUS4t7gKTLjjigz2uLzHlYHlJET2-FuW939M8ER0cY8zyaCPrIhhqcNetN3OHZ1cK7Eu8AG1-s3VxC7Sl2C7v0b_eSCShFaISvAUjG/s8160/IMG20231102143959.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggn5ayksYgLQsaXa5IYEce7weNfaKkZk5xDPCoz6PtlO2bBlTC22bv8GBYu2b4H5fW8CYfpGmbVkWmTHRJGtboJSvUS4t7gKTLjjigz2uLzHlYHlJET2-FuW939M8ER0cY8zyaCPrIhhqcNetN3OHZ1cK7Eu8AG1-s3VxC7Sl2C7v0b_eSCShFaISvAUjG/s320/IMG20231102143959.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting ready for Spring planting</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhSDqlOh5EiJGB3O7rYWEAVZo6Mm3bCQIIsqBC4ilU8Sv13uq_aUz2RE0WJgOfI7bA3QYCNh9KEWwE7GD8HLFY5FXRoiXHst86c40bEoP7k01iDlX7xjQwX5jYoB6y74kVSkL3G3BoMcdKXmu-iSoXxFfLl_o8auJpt6ZTTJZTuNZvz_OHRtGpzmw2LbBA/s8160/IMG20231009172654.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhSDqlOh5EiJGB3O7rYWEAVZo6Mm3bCQIIsqBC4ilU8Sv13uq_aUz2RE0WJgOfI7bA3QYCNh9KEWwE7GD8HLFY5FXRoiXHst86c40bEoP7k01iDlX7xjQwX5jYoB6y74kVSkL3G3BoMcdKXmu-iSoXxFfLl_o8auJpt6ZTTJZTuNZvz_OHRtGpzmw2LbBA/s320/IMG20231009172654.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picked sugar snap peas</td></tr></tbody></table> <div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaFwQLcbtgxwx0w1X5EXyhwCRwIokp4Bx037-RmprT-8BS0qOpXPYVc58OMwy0nd1KgdDCEgcaHcUXGO9L_0peD9IaoSPWL14_8vcQxgGCJ0DmMdz13UdFLOzxp-m_aZ7JOtYfh3vy7Lb8GOQw84ivVg1S6mT_hZBNaqKNabtUvcEgHak3ME3z0t4M_uPx/s4080/IMG20230819163001.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaFwQLcbtgxwx0w1X5EXyhwCRwIokp4Bx037-RmprT-8BS0qOpXPYVc58OMwy0nd1KgdDCEgcaHcUXGO9L_0peD9IaoSPWL14_8vcQxgGCJ0DmMdz13UdFLOzxp-m_aZ7JOtYfh3vy7Lb8GOQw84ivVg1S6mT_hZBNaqKNabtUvcEgHak3ME3z0t4M_uPx/w242-h320/IMG20230819163001.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knitted dish cloths</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8UMQZejmxRiGmCocEXZESkn0bRLLauoFL0Efflt1HH7jaIQ4Iwlm98La3SaE0vVP3PCkzmeeDDLa2c4ppuDFoEAMLJ42xbynPsflpJF25Onbz56eoaU5zIynPycqu0akTkYzMfqtq2EWYzSibQzGknAgR5UlAiToju03aa0o_oS0Fl5qtBYq6l3kE38XE/s4080/IMG20230908191340.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8UMQZejmxRiGmCocEXZESkn0bRLLauoFL0Efflt1HH7jaIQ4Iwlm98La3SaE0vVP3PCkzmeeDDLa2c4ppuDFoEAMLJ42xbynPsflpJF25Onbz56eoaU5zIynPycqu0akTkYzMfqtq2EWYzSibQzGknAgR5UlAiToju03aa0o_oS0Fl5qtBYq6l3kE38XE/s320/IMG20230908191340.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luka still loves the free entertainment</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #38761d;">LINKS</span></h3><div><span style="color: #38761d;"><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/10/making-your-own-air-freshener.html">Air Freshener . Room Spray</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/wholemeal-bread-with-extra-goodness.html">Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness</a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2015/01/brown-sugar.html">Brown Sugar</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;">How have you saved money this week ?</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;">Are you Spring planting or getting ready for Winter ?</span></h3><p><br /></p></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-17361265036866377322023-10-28T06:00:00.001+11:002023-10-28T06:00:00.145+11:00My Blogging Absence Explained. <p>Hello faithful blog readers. Most of you would have noticed my sudden disappearance from blog writing over the last 3 months. I'm not one to come and go as I please and have always taken my blog seriously since I started it 9 years ago. There have been times when life has been overwhelming and fitting in a blog post or two has been impossible. Lately, there has been no spare time to physically sit in front of a laptop to share what's been going on.</p><p>For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you would have read about the birth of our third grandchild ( and first girl ) 5 weeks ago. Naomi Wendy was born under difficult medical circumstances that had spanned 5 months. Naomi is completely fine. The medical condition was something our daughter had to endure and it couldn't be resolved until Naomi was born.</p><p>Darren and I looked after our other grandchildren at a moments notice when our daughter was hospitalised over 20 times since May. Darren spent many nights racing Megan to hospital so that Luka and Bryson could stay in their own beds with their Daddy looking after them. We've done many day care pick ups / drop offs, had the boys for many sleepovers, helped run 2 households, looked after Megan at the hospital when the nurses were too busy and fed whoever was home for dinner.</p><p>During this time both Darren and I still went to work, although there was one week I took off from my cleaning work when Megan had a 10 day hospital stay. We also continued to help look after my Mum when she needed us.</p><p>We did go on our long awaited holiday to the Cook Islands in late August / early September. This holiday had been planned since 2016 for our 25th Wedding Anniversary in 2020. It took 4 years of saving, a pandemic, 2 years of lockdowns in Melbourne, a cancelation, a death in the family and a last minute trip to the Emergency Department ( I had a chest infection ) before we boarded the plane to New Zealand, then on to the Cook Islands. </p><p>This trip was a dream come true and my first overseas holiday. The Cook Islands, especially Aitutaki, is heaven on earth. We swam in beautiful blue lagoons, relaxed in hammocks, ate delicious food and visited local islands. We took so many photos of spectacular sunsets and coconut tree scenery. I'll post a few photos below.</p><p>Thankyou to those who reached out and walked this journey with us over the last 5 months. Your prayers, concern and kind words really made a difference to how we travelled each difficult day. Megan is doing quite well now and settling into life as a mother of 3.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">If our life continues on the calmer path it has been for the last week, I hope to start blogging again very shortly.</span></i></h3><div><i><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></i></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #a64d79;">A Day Trip To</span> <span style="color: #a64d79;">One Foot Island in Aitutaki</span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX97UdQtwLBnbFqzDWBU6GHaLeQf9Z07i76x9DU6aDU7-LQ0fXTREUuphrqo2iI5ESLfb12KbHtVd7DAep6RRwM6HQpNrtkYXvyFagTuFMaIZ_Ae85Gj8y6weqBLyMEKXajuPWVTbr2wTBCKfb6NJGh2XS40TUV_v9lZwsuUBfTBq55zLgZIhbzpUI1GC3/s4080/IMG20230902121706.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX97UdQtwLBnbFqzDWBU6GHaLeQf9Z07i76x9DU6aDU7-LQ0fXTREUuphrqo2iI5ESLfb12KbHtVd7DAep6RRwM6HQpNrtkYXvyFagTuFMaIZ_Ae85Gj8y6weqBLyMEKXajuPWVTbr2wTBCKfb6NJGh2XS40TUV_v9lZwsuUBfTBq55zLgZIhbzpUI1GC3/w320-h242/IMG20230902121706.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRzk5RfmK7ulb3Ke5iQOOKCZpWLcEGegJlL2WOMj7r5b1EzxrVvinKa1II1g3WLdGAZO603KX_ip5YDTa3r5daR4yexQBfKaPfizxDodhdkn5DVfHo7tEF4nAqj3AK95FCoUCadAVnMn05DLNkyDj89sTp27KryHAgKTtb6NDynzNyiNxl_6oeCOEFpx9/s4080/IMG20230902122059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRzk5RfmK7ulb3Ke5iQOOKCZpWLcEGegJlL2WOMj7r5b1EzxrVvinKa1II1g3WLdGAZO603KX_ip5YDTa3r5daR4yexQBfKaPfizxDodhdkn5DVfHo7tEF4nAqj3AK95FCoUCadAVnMn05DLNkyDj89sTp27KryHAgKTtb6NDynzNyiNxl_6oeCOEFpx9/s320/IMG20230902122059.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGlVoefx8MhynyH2WEZXipvamz-Fae5X6sveCfiQkqbrOLoxy02i2E-Zz_L8rOHq44f8q12RPb-oJI-1SOKXqAo8RaK93b3f4chNK3H6nZG5gq44hUnG-inEDUs5TojoK7UrYHNkaHqsT2POcWAT7KHi3LnxKg_MWGoo3qn26S_-22fBsRQE4ZbfI4-MPy/s4080/IMG20230902122052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGlVoefx8MhynyH2WEZXipvamz-Fae5X6sveCfiQkqbrOLoxy02i2E-Zz_L8rOHq44f8q12RPb-oJI-1SOKXqAo8RaK93b3f4chNK3H6nZG5gq44hUnG-inEDUs5TojoK7UrYHNkaHqsT2POcWAT7KHi3LnxKg_MWGoo3qn26S_-22fBsRQE4ZbfI4-MPy/s320/IMG20230902122052.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jNlcIQ6l_zCcCdHkt5-m7ucVF4LKMld5z8fRHD_V2z24Q2I7rfsozwMAsieVza5bKBR_rz08ZbQHKpyt0OWWYexVRC-C1Pep6Gdh0FyAyO4r2lo4HSZk4OFBwNqmp2AS4GGPE7sNZ_NhH3QpjjccOrKKhg_P3fj1n1YqYuQUFTK52lObxMpIntRBDPbH/s4080/IMG20230902134139.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jNlcIQ6l_zCcCdHkt5-m7ucVF4LKMld5z8fRHD_V2z24Q2I7rfsozwMAsieVza5bKBR_rz08ZbQHKpyt0OWWYexVRC-C1Pep6Gdh0FyAyO4r2lo4HSZk4OFBwNqmp2AS4GGPE7sNZ_NhH3QpjjccOrKKhg_P3fj1n1YqYuQUFTK52lObxMpIntRBDPbH/s320/IMG20230902134139.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-OsfWiCb1G-f4KnfDaYZgPuWYPEvJZKwv88745Kk7sPnUAqydVUfFzNolfxiUkq7oiCiIZN80jdT0UQEBo83avNczBRsl0oy8FGoqg61c_83X77_k63uAOarbzvQc7nltVsjaev02b6VaaSyRZ2mynMzxHnnpUHcr9B2OZSoFpYn9cCWgG5kU_DVcihH/s4080/IMG20230902121825.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-OsfWiCb1G-f4KnfDaYZgPuWYPEvJZKwv88745Kk7sPnUAqydVUfFzNolfxiUkq7oiCiIZN80jdT0UQEBo83avNczBRsl0oy8FGoqg61c_83X77_k63uAOarbzvQc7nltVsjaev02b6VaaSyRZ2mynMzxHnnpUHcr9B2OZSoFpYn9cCWgG5kU_DVcihH/s320/IMG20230902121825.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLJ-nIzXRAXbz3yhlarm4cuUKCb0nC7o3Z0k_nOE-q3aM-b6YTFKtCR3BJioYKtrAwNqxuKBiayhCyD_m1QHBX5tPfu-FFvE5J2dL-3Qd3lsDCFpSLA3Y6xCcxe7BX56oY6t1wt-pC8AvZLfKo-JpHhnxOVtVjkL6iNSwfCElEA8fommC_q-0d878OiBI/s4624/IMG20230902122226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLJ-nIzXRAXbz3yhlarm4cuUKCb0nC7o3Z0k_nOE-q3aM-b6YTFKtCR3BJioYKtrAwNqxuKBiayhCyD_m1QHBX5tPfu-FFvE5J2dL-3Qd3lsDCFpSLA3Y6xCcxe7BX56oY6t1wt-pC8AvZLfKo-JpHhnxOVtVjkL6iNSwfCElEA8fommC_q-0d878OiBI/s320/IMG20230902122226.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #a64d79;">Our Resort In Aitutaki</span></h3><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcs8b7_Xjxx95yQhqeyiUsZOkvS7i-QURxHZppFXK-SkkRdEdBoUhjfR_CKFuT2VHacL85uq_2QuLZ2dfW7QbSfpWvfvvWhRV3Zy8O3E1ILoba_8maZ11IQMPEwwmrwE9Wr8V0SqQko39ug5l1aNVcQN0Kt4AXggY8zPgI8Bvf9PpbxMPyYaMeeqMDjECe/s4080/IMG20230904183030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcs8b7_Xjxx95yQhqeyiUsZOkvS7i-QURxHZppFXK-SkkRdEdBoUhjfR_CKFuT2VHacL85uq_2QuLZ2dfW7QbSfpWvfvvWhRV3Zy8O3E1ILoba_8maZ11IQMPEwwmrwE9Wr8V0SqQko39ug5l1aNVcQN0Kt4AXggY8zPgI8Bvf9PpbxMPyYaMeeqMDjECe/w320-h242/IMG20230904183030.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoWTvgcBxpgAJH43pOYGr-JShWraXutSfy0SYCWMrqaCwKawgfjM0tbPUgsagO4cBWSgXL0Z2mPP-DxD75WUELEa6UbKD_DRf-yzhWquHgTDXsjYBpfAvuqcisw9mG9r7SyHS5YmpWCfKhGdrCJZIqlF0b0JQrBxiu2E5QAWenF1RSW25jMClD-H8Kt6Rl/s4080/IMG20230903101854.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoWTvgcBxpgAJH43pOYGr-JShWraXutSfy0SYCWMrqaCwKawgfjM0tbPUgsagO4cBWSgXL0Z2mPP-DxD75WUELEa6UbKD_DRf-yzhWquHgTDXsjYBpfAvuqcisw9mG9r7SyHS5YmpWCfKhGdrCJZIqlF0b0JQrBxiu2E5QAWenF1RSW25jMClD-H8Kt6Rl/s320/IMG20230903101854.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK-LL3dWFr3bnEmj8gLBAC5w7XbgdNN8hixonR-XWOnBfwddW9RQm7vPUoEyGw_ygePEqZCUIW1rm9daz_ncgkWevmVigIXHXnGNx3x4c_baL2iHiTSyCNbk_bvTpGGWATl3qJ3-CtPJhiqhJwfPVzPLrdpMhQ76OfYjRvV_hsJOPuEd84VPAg8a2xW1uc/s4080/IMG20230902155506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK-LL3dWFr3bnEmj8gLBAC5w7XbgdNN8hixonR-XWOnBfwddW9RQm7vPUoEyGw_ygePEqZCUIW1rm9daz_ncgkWevmVigIXHXnGNx3x4c_baL2iHiTSyCNbk_bvTpGGWATl3qJ3-CtPJhiqhJwfPVzPLrdpMhQ76OfYjRvV_hsJOPuEd84VPAg8a2xW1uc/s320/IMG20230902155506.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaKbVjFqBHRFaWMDfgyBqbIRLc-1079iH7GpnfJWgafAAFqYhCwKbHQGNj86sFHn8_ujVA6kjFTZ6Q6jMpaXbFHHw50Cflb1M4VzK_S8S-_knYdpxzbI8WL-OEUym4Jrc7CfipzQhA7YFo3zljwRUjB4GQKrFvnwIpCvmatPOoc9VV0ptGzio5qxm6N6FN/s4080/IMG20230902182315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaKbVjFqBHRFaWMDfgyBqbIRLc-1079iH7GpnfJWgafAAFqYhCwKbHQGNj86sFHn8_ujVA6kjFTZ6Q6jMpaXbFHHw50Cflb1M4VzK_S8S-_knYdpxzbI8WL-OEUym4Jrc7CfipzQhA7YFo3zljwRUjB4GQKrFvnwIpCvmatPOoc9VV0ptGzio5qxm6N6FN/s320/IMG20230902182315.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0XEL6-yYlUYgmZ80l5d6BtWE4AIQBdEE71s5Z6NwNykPu7PSF-Z9Jmt_23_NsV9dcF4frc6kV97dfcnqXF7mLtAgy3tLj_MrGmzXz8UpQR273NTOXc1_YujZ_wFd6PUpy_nfXProAUwpLwNxqWQUuYq-TlyCrMHXekql5jlqa5tjy3tHOGQIDdDXGc-9d/s4080/IMG20230901170643.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0XEL6-yYlUYgmZ80l5d6BtWE4AIQBdEE71s5Z6NwNykPu7PSF-Z9Jmt_23_NsV9dcF4frc6kV97dfcnqXF7mLtAgy3tLj_MrGmzXz8UpQR273NTOXc1_YujZ_wFd6PUpy_nfXProAUwpLwNxqWQUuYq-TlyCrMHXekql5jlqa5tjy3tHOGQIDdDXGc-9d/s320/IMG20230901170643.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOU37x0iHKgUVyeOsWJPyYPgXLG_jEqW_rqDFjrRh0uLIKGwLyXJd3SokW8305UKW3xYJu1nyKSC8KrFZVKsRhHkiafATIReoMQjTkXiOCbnw54izBuofeFWw8MB_rrpPz5gKGEe8QJQILtyt_sSBUJlJQgpA5GsHfhaekYvKGku_euLV0EUXs8J5-pn8K/s4080/IMG20230901170827.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOU37x0iHKgUVyeOsWJPyYPgXLG_jEqW_rqDFjrRh0uLIKGwLyXJd3SokW8305UKW3xYJu1nyKSC8KrFZVKsRhHkiafATIReoMQjTkXiOCbnw54izBuofeFWw8MB_rrpPz5gKGEe8QJQILtyt_sSBUJlJQgpA5GsHfhaekYvKGku_euLV0EUXs8J5-pn8K/s320/IMG20230901170827.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view every day for every meal.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-9tGxdxR0BM08nlRfzbKHEa8Bl5XZWoFVyRyhxc1qFMHoEKmDen4UOr2Ey2bYIjnqE21ah4tLfcLR5lWEvP8Vhy91wETgUPHEAALHIQ_MQwXCX0bIGB2ookYTKPT8XL3fjJq7mp4Ly-XdWUPgLb5p-SPhY4uhHjaeAD027kWg6_nGe5ohgW5V33nFm6z/s4080/IMG20230903185320.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-9tGxdxR0BM08nlRfzbKHEa8Bl5XZWoFVyRyhxc1qFMHoEKmDen4UOr2Ey2bYIjnqE21ah4tLfcLR5lWEvP8Vhy91wETgUPHEAALHIQ_MQwXCX0bIGB2ookYTKPT8XL3fjJq7mp4Ly-XdWUPgLb5p-SPhY4uhHjaeAD027kWg6_nGe5ohgW5V33nFm6z/s320/IMG20230903185320.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggDU6w26BGEKuW7bqx4J5niLJBBs_sppX8wKqzaKEJkyqfZH9VGvBmU6iTbLcT-p-N3CXku-TetF0SOJxHfO9Hm9PJGD_bA5rZlGn6r2bCprTupWD1NzmSYjH4THX8oVN8C_uzGs5kAXMt7TLfr2iU34wjEHTYyF8j9QHdqN8A5OZs48RQLTcpCf6e3Ny/s4080/IMG20230902124020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggDU6w26BGEKuW7bqx4J5niLJBBs_sppX8wKqzaKEJkyqfZH9VGvBmU6iTbLcT-p-N3CXku-TetF0SOJxHfO9Hm9PJGD_bA5rZlGn6r2bCprTupWD1NzmSYjH4THX8oVN8C_uzGs5kAXMt7TLfr2iU34wjEHTYyF8j9QHdqN8A5OZs48RQLTcpCf6e3Ny/s320/IMG20230902124020.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #a64d79;">Our Resort in Rarotonga</span></h3><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh21m-kjsY2VdlYQkHjU5EcGFL0UsZojHxP0QawUo_CW7dVX-Xrvxf5cZ6_IueWYFcsx8iGg5kF3xkzHA1U6KnUQ-K2fzhoGx9EKY4adtOrPMFNAZoH0ggSTtAuQoPX8dyEEvvZ31K2acga1_A06a-hY49hDFRGxhgnXFgCxRZuNtEFsDZiY9nOkPwYY93L/s4080/IMG20230827162810.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh21m-kjsY2VdlYQkHjU5EcGFL0UsZojHxP0QawUo_CW7dVX-Xrvxf5cZ6_IueWYFcsx8iGg5kF3xkzHA1U6KnUQ-K2fzhoGx9EKY4adtOrPMFNAZoH0ggSTtAuQoPX8dyEEvvZ31K2acga1_A06a-hY49hDFRGxhgnXFgCxRZuNtEFsDZiY9nOkPwYY93L/w320-h242/IMG20230827162810.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #a64d79;">Our Family</span></h3><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8SdWmO6Bc2oype5Jv9rU-B_-u2jJpwZfHQc-I-_OONHoYR19RzXYzYdTWAEfwSWXXw7HdC3ZN3o0NJ1rG2RysQlsoUk6fuWQDKCdx51OCMPWobjackNxsY-inUvrU0ZQnlxEAfLrhMdLa-ybQLeBPZDg2TP7j_vM4BvUIAjEyrnVL5cz0j_GACfi3HovV/s4080/IMG20230917123152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8SdWmO6Bc2oype5Jv9rU-B_-u2jJpwZfHQc-I-_OONHoYR19RzXYzYdTWAEfwSWXXw7HdC3ZN3o0NJ1rG2RysQlsoUk6fuWQDKCdx51OCMPWobjackNxsY-inUvrU0ZQnlxEAfLrhMdLa-ybQLeBPZDg2TP7j_vM4BvUIAjEyrnVL5cz0j_GACfi3HovV/s320/IMG20230917123152.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXu2dOUdTb-skaWU48EShRF7MPjyw6o05E91ex5J0RtrhTGHIzx_8wM3p3xvL4yxq0xwDtIhZcXEzp2m7suSpUVi7FPbeyTA_wAsv4iYbU6_DKrHHFXNyjWf2fVKRylsyJKNZoGac9tX0HpuSdVdjf5gtUn4V6y2kfD_XqawhQUAYHTNJCEl0e-H1-jwb-/s8160/IMG20230926170134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXu2dOUdTb-skaWU48EShRF7MPjyw6o05E91ex5J0RtrhTGHIzx_8wM3p3xvL4yxq0xwDtIhZcXEzp2m7suSpUVi7FPbeyTA_wAsv4iYbU6_DKrHHFXNyjWf2fVKRylsyJKNZoGac9tX0HpuSdVdjf5gtUn4V6y2kfD_XqawhQUAYHTNJCEl0e-H1-jwb-/s320/IMG20230926170134.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luka and " his ' bubba.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBnPTyRK05ynTfkE4EbXFaTNUubIGfD4rRdzNg9opAU0sdgGS2SoYixFS32pcItmz2n_CDj_zvuEFHbh6qc1EDQMFlKbaLdwpNoKXYtuuj7Ch6e7RHFZhnqdoY03I8FKCMGGmSeZ8s7zkqblALXzCxYWpmkGiAUFiRU5QwBz3-gQa-FazkK8VxuD56-D18/s8160/IMG20230926163612.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="8160" data-original-width="6144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBnPTyRK05ynTfkE4EbXFaTNUubIGfD4rRdzNg9opAU0sdgGS2SoYixFS32pcItmz2n_CDj_zvuEFHbh6qc1EDQMFlKbaLdwpNoKXYtuuj7Ch6e7RHFZhnqdoY03I8FKCMGGmSeZ8s7zkqblALXzCxYWpmkGiAUFiRU5QwBz3-gQa-FazkK8VxuD56-D18/s320/IMG20230926163612.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikI7xMw5tFAwbLSiCTYu2UqlOE7WOuwWqt3WK3vRCHA41anKYY4uXy3j9yqQIuWHIL58cp3oL62KzBDxCyLZiiIb-nBdVL6Nem2_VSD2ipqLQ9MwdHx3cnuUhROlf5_pdJW5ee7CeumNwLKjyhOjEASU5xRyoOVVQlmkcLNFgAoQ4l_IE_xTZ3lgyEww9L/s4080/IMG20230917124214.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikI7xMw5tFAwbLSiCTYu2UqlOE7WOuwWqt3WK3vRCHA41anKYY4uXy3j9yqQIuWHIL58cp3oL62KzBDxCyLZiiIb-nBdVL6Nem2_VSD2ipqLQ9MwdHx3cnuUhROlf5_pdJW5ee7CeumNwLKjyhOjEASU5xRyoOVVQlmkcLNFgAoQ4l_IE_xTZ3lgyEww9L/s320/IMG20230917124214.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-90400382384838882482023-07-22T06:00:00.001+10:002023-07-22T06:00:00.141+10:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 22nd July 2023<p> We've had a busy week of work, helping my Mum with her garden, rearranging the laundry for a couple of new purchases ( photos below ), a trip to the football, food shopping, church, hosting an afternoon tea, general housework a sleepover for the grandsons and running errands.</p><p>Here's how we managed to save money even when we had a crazy busy week - </p><p>* Dried most of the washing over the ducted heating vents.</p><p>* I 'needed' to get another Lego mat for our grandsons to play with. Sharing one just wasn't working. After doing some online research, Kmart seemed to have the cheapest price. So I went to my local store but found they were completely out of stock. As I was looking through the toy section, I came across Kmart's brand of mats. They were much cheaper at $13 for a pack of 5 compared to the Lego brand at $10 each. The boys loved the different colors and they are compatible with the Lego bricks.</p><p>* Darren and I went to the football last Saturday with Luka and his Dad Kurt. We took all our snacks and water bottles and only bought lunch. If the weather had been a bit warmer than the 12 degrees Celsius that day, we would have packed salad rolls for lunch.</p><p>* I baked ANZAC biscuits and choc chip biscuits using homemade dough from the freezer. We took some to the football, some were for a family afternoon tea the next day and the rest were for our lunch boxes during the week.</p><p>* I saved the shower warm up water and drink bottle water and Darren used it for the pot plants outside. </p><p>* I did my monthly grocery shop on Monday and used the 10% off Everyday Rewards offer to save extra money.</p><p>* Our laying chicken got a bit excited about the sun and slightly warmer weather we've had lately. Over the last week and a bit she's decided to lay again and we've collected 6 eggs.</p><p>* I turned the heater down to 19 degrees Celsius most days and when the sun was shining through the windows I turned it off completely.</p><p>* We had family over for dinner on Sunday and I cooked a 1/2 leg of lamb. The next day I made a big pot of veggie soup and used the last of the lamb meat. This soup gave us 14 serves and the dinner gave us 4 serves. In total we got 18 serves / meals with the meat costing just over $12. That's 66 cents for each meal that included meat.</p><p>* Darren fed the compost bin every couple of days with kitchen scraps.</p><p>* I fed bread crusts, weeds, leftover watermelon and veggies to the chickens. No food is wasted in our home. It all has a purpose.</p><p>* Portioned out and froze any leftover gravy from the roast lamb dinner.</p><p>* Recently we bought a new washer and dryer which we stacked on top of each other. This means I no longer have the same spot to put the ironing. I needed a basket to place it in, then stack it at the very top of the dryer. I was about to go out and buy a new one, but remembered I had a wicker basket in my shed that I was trying to sell on Marketplace. It was our cat's first bed when she came to us as a kitten. Now it's been repurposed in the laundry.</p><p>* I used a $20 Concierge Rewards voucher from The Good Guys store to get a 4.2 litre of Omo laundry detergent for $17 ( full price is $37 ). This works out cheaper than any branded laundry liquid even on sale in the supermarkets. </p><p>* I dug up a few potatoes and the last carrot from our garden.</p><p><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis14__eoT0VQjLji7x6q37EZ8ydJToABOnGIRUa-Pxi0ALEvzKtoCkLc6rbcYh4rpBLaNBXf2i6t9qZto4uBBAoUFqP2wPTpl-PmjgPDvaLAdKF_PXGMoYiuZMmOLQFdxDLUvIMIWAqoTQvn1iz680vkjt2xS9uCAtSHWVcL4J2L7OuIxwbL1eoMPn1h8z/s5152/IMG_3626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis14__eoT0VQjLji7x6q37EZ8ydJToABOnGIRUa-Pxi0ALEvzKtoCkLc6rbcYh4rpBLaNBXf2i6t9qZto4uBBAoUFqP2wPTpl-PmjgPDvaLAdKF_PXGMoYiuZMmOLQFdxDLUvIMIWAqoTQvn1iz680vkjt2xS9uCAtSHWVcL4J2L7OuIxwbL1eoMPn1h8z/w320-h240/IMG_3626.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our potato patch.</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRB9rCGiBrKjSmVEP1V2ICECtEJL7Mi4Hyo1wuJvy-nDsQKVQU-6JhIbewnKxTpLj9X96qK0tBO-aPqcq-N23Ca7CdrkrGIRh0_esviXjnUnJITfAyM9jSipfTUCQ0p3WjpPOmtaQ1Lr46o1qPvXQ5ushqv_ZdIvk-BL2SPqDZn9hN4DX1In3WxTK9ugfJ/s5152/IMG_3631.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRB9rCGiBrKjSmVEP1V2ICECtEJL7Mi4Hyo1wuJvy-nDsQKVQU-6JhIbewnKxTpLj9X96qK0tBO-aPqcq-N23Ca7CdrkrGIRh0_esviXjnUnJITfAyM9jSipfTUCQ0p3WjpPOmtaQ1Lr46o1qPvXQ5ushqv_ZdIvk-BL2SPqDZn9hN4DX1In3WxTK9ugfJ/w320-h240/IMG_3631.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the garden</td></tr></tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Zewrn0lBLHGOjUXgRU4OPfW-kXTVIz6QGtlLuH_UllWPbZLEydFa8YkYq5TQ3nUlY3YJNPaLrPlYrt1aM-yBJMxYt-8IpHgtewEvF9Wr-QltcVJPoDM-ijRQR7J2ZrCyJJJa9eIAUc3firUcjwjNQj1njybNfNlq-ENAUzgb03TXt34kdgRsgzTwVu9s/s5152/IMG_3624.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Zewrn0lBLHGOjUXgRU4OPfW-kXTVIz6QGtlLuH_UllWPbZLEydFa8YkYq5TQ3nUlY3YJNPaLrPlYrt1aM-yBJMxYt-8IpHgtewEvF9Wr-QltcVJPoDM-ijRQR7J2ZrCyJJJa9eIAUc3firUcjwjNQj1njybNfNlq-ENAUzgb03TXt34kdgRsgzTwVu9s/s320/IMG_3624.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the garden.</td></tr></tbody></table></p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj45G5ip-rkg59X2qMbwqA8L1MhBkcPlQeKk1vn-IHHgLMbuUWDHzeIVFPdvZCPB3p68qhAXsxWNfTbUvCb8SqNmcJdBykepUoySdRJ__B9FD3cJF7Nwo6ghCeTcNYXF33jbRZGXR8gwswZrz5aZ6RS5OvjzM0xOgfAOKMLo-Nq_gFIuPwbjoKg_xPl1Ty/s4080/IMG20230720100059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj45G5ip-rkg59X2qMbwqA8L1MhBkcPlQeKk1vn-IHHgLMbuUWDHzeIVFPdvZCPB3p68qhAXsxWNfTbUvCb8SqNmcJdBykepUoySdRJ__B9FD3cJF7Nwo6ghCeTcNYXF33jbRZGXR8gwswZrz5aZ6RS5OvjzM0xOgfAOKMLo-Nq_gFIuPwbjoKg_xPl1Ty/s320/IMG20230720100059.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luka and Bryson watching the new washing machine</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLztHSUlQdgSXmvPwg8Su7upPkvSqK17CLlDfyk-IgQ0OtKA9AuOd-50fGUEY2esgv3o2q0tq-5tjhsrAcLDq38LbyPM9Z-2KNqEDEko6z5HhP5G6npZGDHZjhkkInWt2tYOqGD179z79Nc7iU_mIwYzwaNZ0cgnKvWDmiVR5818bQ0Pjl-WOGk7S9WZWF/s4080/IMG20230720100120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLztHSUlQdgSXmvPwg8Su7upPkvSqK17CLlDfyk-IgQ0OtKA9AuOd-50fGUEY2esgv3o2q0tq-5tjhsrAcLDq38LbyPM9Z-2KNqEDEko6z5HhP5G6npZGDHZjhkkInWt2tYOqGD179z79Nc7iU_mIwYzwaNZ0cgnKvWDmiVR5818bQ0Pjl-WOGk7S9WZWF/s320/IMG20230720100120.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Entertainment.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAn5st0I8Z7OODsz7nWAx6EfU6Bgi5GHgV8Q2qDmGDneRheONLswPcL4JoyHgqiysSQFsNYtqvxdl2mO6t1D43tNKjTNVRKQuKzuf93-vwmNJvS2DDdgyiDUprZkHbrIutAqcu6ElLX_65bUzTTYxJnSHjr9mx633O2yAdIN5SBfqe036Lz-JiBxai9ta/s4080/IMG20230719183226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAn5st0I8Z7OODsz7nWAx6EfU6Bgi5GHgV8Q2qDmGDneRheONLswPcL4JoyHgqiysSQFsNYtqvxdl2mO6t1D43tNKjTNVRKQuKzuf93-vwmNJvS2DDdgyiDUprZkHbrIutAqcu6ElLX_65bUzTTYxJnSHjr9mx633O2yAdIN5SBfqe036Lz-JiBxai9ta/s320/IMG20230719183226.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bryson is thrilled to 'help' Nanny.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUyNMW2FEvG0bvuHXhVbyyPdv5RdNhrz-ZXiX413z6V0tpnHMwF10awuplr_hZ3t2u3QbMYF0PxJo70LsHvzqdByoOMT-s5gqbm4vhNKXXsQ7OeDArobgKd0xorp1jqfYWJE_hZo1MuWSprpJcmu123jhaupL7JZeiiqI5NwjMOnBS4-84VnH3-pJFx5ZB/s4080/IMG20230715094903.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUyNMW2FEvG0bvuHXhVbyyPdv5RdNhrz-ZXiX413z6V0tpnHMwF10awuplr_hZ3t2u3QbMYF0PxJo70LsHvzqdByoOMT-s5gqbm4vhNKXXsQ7OeDArobgKd0xorp1jqfYWJE_hZo1MuWSprpJcmu123jhaupL7JZeiiqI5NwjMOnBS4-84VnH3-pJFx5ZB/s320/IMG20230715094903.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade biscuits.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTvCOpLfJJ6U2Vdg7nzy9qsU3XJD6YaUR52jt6PP-cIohU4w449UNOzhBH0q0WQrLlon1IA_OmzZLZ6LcCcGHI_6oEh0gnZttzSivTmUJpLl5P8Ruh_R6wVS3D1xSXyV16eUxevz7CTU8F8y83IB_TCUzX9Z8bKjPSvhZKi5e2OKQaCBnEAEjHuxXIbFeB/s4080/IMG20230719185020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTvCOpLfJJ6U2Vdg7nzy9qsU3XJD6YaUR52jt6PP-cIohU4w449UNOzhBH0q0WQrLlon1IA_OmzZLZ6LcCcGHI_6oEh0gnZttzSivTmUJpLl5P8Ruh_R6wVS3D1xSXyV16eUxevz7CTU8F8y83IB_TCUzX9Z8bKjPSvhZKi5e2OKQaCBnEAEjHuxXIbFeB/w242-h320/IMG20230719185020.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luka playing with the new mats</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNatEWzR19qewDRAxiU5TopAP9CHxvnGBeQo1B4Ht3sZxcganxG23mWuDD1hhZ6vqmUc_WqMrZI1vvyUcUWId_ZdAPNuhFDRIRHHHkEVPfQf8V0VS1eU5BDvy_Ga4_rv4oJyLn40QVXGAo6v22os3Ze6N-28hcnKo6MYpAx0uovs2eccqmMC7vAuBPF_7/s5152/IMG_3635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNatEWzR19qewDRAxiU5TopAP9CHxvnGBeQo1B4Ht3sZxcganxG23mWuDD1hhZ6vqmUc_WqMrZI1vvyUcUWId_ZdAPNuhFDRIRHHHkEVPfQf8V0VS1eU5BDvy_Ga4_rv4oJyLn40QVXGAo6v22os3Ze6N-28hcnKo6MYpAx0uovs2eccqmMC7vAuBPF_7/w320-h240/IMG_3635.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Compatible with Lego</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5TO8E_Dr_WLtCw4PqoKdrm9r2NBubzi30roQKVOAgsVtGwGVZ66lBNhcL6ee-AJE3uRYLrc-98_xMx0ZVUG2H701xW8w8SdRaLX_MdGI9fbxeJj-BZaGsPZfGbU9mB2w9B1mx-LeiF7GF9MQzGjdy_r51dGNEwcqisA4BWupxXTJUqSfPHDPvVA3O5BFV/s5152/IMG_3634.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5TO8E_Dr_WLtCw4PqoKdrm9r2NBubzi30roQKVOAgsVtGwGVZ66lBNhcL6ee-AJE3uRYLrc-98_xMx0ZVUG2H701xW8w8SdRaLX_MdGI9fbxeJj-BZaGsPZfGbU9mB2w9B1mx-LeiF7GF9MQzGjdy_r51dGNEwcqisA4BWupxXTJUqSfPHDPvVA3O5BFV/w320-h240/IMG_3634.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The colors included.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVZ82Gh43o8bVrEWXokWYWv3eXmYd05-4ivnpN4plEsJJ529737FQSjHuSQnt-cJD7ObJL0AD75JbjN43NOMlRXqPve4yY3QZDsCFo5mBmFxJtALDcmAOMfyTunwtAClZGj8jN8fVCiw6Fc-7lZzCRt8AoAKshpsVbpuGaYq9qiDyHTE-Mm9alZos4Cls/s5152/IMG_3633.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVZ82Gh43o8bVrEWXokWYWv3eXmYd05-4ivnpN4plEsJJ529737FQSjHuSQnt-cJD7ObJL0AD75JbjN43NOMlRXqPve4yY3QZDsCFo5mBmFxJtALDcmAOMfyTunwtAClZGj8jN8fVCiw6Fc-7lZzCRt8AoAKshpsVbpuGaYq9qiDyHTE-Mm9alZos4Cls/s320/IMG_3633.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiObm5mb88NmSclK7mq-I8X-rcyB1u07ix4shOD_Kz8hpxyvL5ndALKAipXC2UEvJFgZVoxUydCtjUcw3bKr9BQh3YlxSPDmreJGwDNnIgy5W0DC6dsTwqmrCppcdTM2yng4ajmYjTxulIC6VTxjwwgyywC8I62JZgGtPGvTc1-kKK1EYmHeqJbtZsFe7ni/s5152/IMG_3632.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiObm5mb88NmSclK7mq-I8X-rcyB1u07ix4shOD_Kz8hpxyvL5ndALKAipXC2UEvJFgZVoxUydCtjUcw3bKr9BQh3YlxSPDmreJGwDNnIgy5W0DC6dsTwqmrCppcdTM2yng4ajmYjTxulIC6VTxjwwgyywC8I62JZgGtPGvTc1-kKK1EYmHeqJbtZsFe7ni/s320/IMG_3632.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I dug up our last carrot.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;"><br />Are you on the look out for any great deals / discounts ?</span></i></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">How have you saved time, money and energy this week ?</span></i></h2><p></p><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-27072826603638272812023-07-15T06:00:00.001+10:002023-07-15T06:00:00.149+10:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 15th July 2023<p> We've had some lovely mild, sunny days in Melbourne this week. It was so mild that it felt like Autumn instead of the depths of Winter. The curtains were flung open and the heater turned off to enjoy the free warmth.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Here's how we saved money this week -</span></i></h3><p>* I made a big batch of pita chips.</p><p>* Dried almost all our washing on clothes horses over the ducted heating vents. I did dry one load in the dryer after having a very tiring day at work. I'd scrubbed and cleaned a home for almost 7 hours and by the time I came home I could barely move my hands. Throwing the washing in the dryer was easier than pegging it on a clothes horse.</p><p>* Limited our heater usage on the sunny days and turned the thermostat down to 19 degrees Celsius.</p><p>* Made a large amount of chop suey and added TVP to stretch the 250g of beef mince further. I added in a large carrot, capsicum and wom bok from our garden ( as well as other veggies ). I carefully portioned it out and got 10 serves.</p><p>* Saved the washing machine rinse water and shower warm up water to pour back into the washing machine.</p><p>* Baked three loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness. I used recycled bread bags to store the bread in the freezer.</p><p>* Darren baked 10 wholemeal bread rolls for his work lunches.</p><p>* Gratefully received a large whole watermelon and some croissants. </p><p>* Used the solar lanterns every night after dinner.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;">LINKS -</span></h3><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2016/10/chop-suey-aussie-style.html">Chop Suey - Aussie Style</a></span></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/wholemeal-bread-with-extra-goodness.html">Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness</a></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2016/02/pita-chips.html">Pita Chips</a></span></h4><p><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4wyuhQemtsrVZsxNsCXWezLoOcJReqy24HdP2fCr0i7xO6AEJ8IjO21JmGt3_IBEeTDCmrV8RNA16_P99MtZqVRsQt_Zg6Yb7G2sQWzHaCagn22becW98WYDd83rU12_hBtMxQuwPWjhHZdaS9SGZ7v96LRRWcgHYKKtNbOVpAVKETpr7VYjcOoCXBaKx/s5152/IMG_3620.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4wyuhQemtsrVZsxNsCXWezLoOcJReqy24HdP2fCr0i7xO6AEJ8IjO21JmGt3_IBEeTDCmrV8RNA16_P99MtZqVRsQt_Zg6Yb7G2sQWzHaCagn22becW98WYDd83rU12_hBtMxQuwPWjhHZdaS9SGZ7v96LRRWcgHYKKtNbOVpAVKETpr7VYjcOoCXBaKx/w320-h240/IMG_3620.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Home baked bread</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytZnHpy0XOYJXhuRVwXNzIsLvmwWAPlNUpilHYSXMveI-6jfFnugTVqb62JKYNYzLxwcaJR81MvmxNtWGZmStN2dGfBd4FOCxzbLI-BEahzt-DleJ9AHoi_RhZTv3iHauYIP5pQmtV07yI_z7vsazlMOw_RIfjBDnmd-7uU9Zkj0PR6hoavg-Fwzk3vZg/s5152/IMG_3614.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytZnHpy0XOYJXhuRVwXNzIsLvmwWAPlNUpilHYSXMveI-6jfFnugTVqb62JKYNYzLxwcaJR81MvmxNtWGZmStN2dGfBd4FOCxzbLI-BEahzt-DleJ9AHoi_RhZTv3iHauYIP5pQmtV07yI_z7vsazlMOw_RIfjBDnmd-7uU9Zkj0PR6hoavg-Fwzk3vZg/s320/IMG_3614.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sewing I did for a baby shower</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-qG5O8xaYuq9MROc0OFoqm7VQVzi9AsegJg2K4hhWSDa8hT7589Ue1luO-7n7sbH2z6wpIYN8hUCLtXd7HhZ96BPQsWxNK08gIzWnH-V0Vkbemp7rpZbClHyUh59l_exACLbbrKlq1pggosPPb7oXVXE3Rb-3g7ZsoPT_AwmBm8peUSKq_p3IbdLY2ohN/s5152/IMG_3615.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-qG5O8xaYuq9MROc0OFoqm7VQVzi9AsegJg2K4hhWSDa8hT7589Ue1luO-7n7sbH2z6wpIYN8hUCLtXd7HhZ96BPQsWxNK08gIzWnH-V0Vkbemp7rpZbClHyUh59l_exACLbbrKlq1pggosPPb7oXVXE3Rb-3g7ZsoPT_AwmBm8peUSKq_p3IbdLY2ohN/s320/IMG_3615.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bath towel, hand towel and face washer set</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #741b47;">How have you saved time, money or energy this week ?</span></i></h2><p></p><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-66972478259356232122023-07-12T06:00:00.001+10:002023-07-12T06:00:00.144+10:0010 Ways To Turn Power Off In Your Home - Part 2<p>Darren and I just received our latest electricity bill the other day. Thankfully we didn't experience bill shock and our provider said we are using 6% less than the same time last year. Compared to other similar household in our area, we are using far less than a household of one person. That's pretty good considering we have 2 people living here and family that visits a couple of times a week.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Following on from last week, here are another 10 items you can turn off at the power point -</b></span></i></h3><p>1. Turn off your electric doorbell. How likely are you to have someone knocking at your door ? It's even better if you don't know there's a pesky salesperson is at your door. I only turn our doorbell on when I'm expecting visitors.</p><p>2. Turn your electric toothbrushes off when not charging. From memory they only need an hour to recharge.</p><p>3. Turn off your electric reclining chairs. That function doesn't need to be available 24 / 7 unless you are sitting in the chair.</p><p>4. Turn off your floor lamps, table lamps and bedside lamps when not in use. While they might not have a standby light, it's just good practice to turn things off at the wall when you don't need them.</p><p>5. Turn off your toaster oven at the wall to eliminate any standby lights. The reality is, you'll only use it at meal times.</p><p>6. Turn off your heated towel rail. Usually towels dry naturally in between uses. If you have a ducted heating vent in your bathroom, just close the door and let the vent do all the work.</p><p>7. Turn off your outdoor porch lights / security lights. They are great for night time use if you really need them especially when navigating steps and locks on the doors. We have many neighbours who have their outdoor lights turned on during the day for no reason. It's such a waste of electricity and I'm sure they have no idea they are on.</p><p>8. Turn your gaming consoles off at the wall. Those little standby lights don't need to be on 24 / 7 when the family might only use them for an hour or so.</p><p>9. Turn your bar fridge / drink fridge / garage fridge off at the wall if they are empty. If you only have a couple of bottles / cans being chilled, perhaps move them to the main fridge.</p><p>10. Turn off your robot ( automatic ) vacuum at the wall. You might only use them once or twice a week for an hour yet I've seen many turned on just waiting for someone to need them.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtQSBa8VWsHYx-N--NUoOx5BCYOOSKOHuZSl83a8EqNY8G3YJH7YZfzRRr8eQYxwPUE-MEeQXdULJT-68fm1fqlhLbI51uOQsfEll-P01l4zDYovFy_slKdkdScA66qEurIDsyCc9sG4JhHwC56EeY5QQhJBaGoeVEKoWWc1MMxsdW9tGyRH6dbbZadwN/s3472/100_7978.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3472" data-original-width="2604" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtQSBa8VWsHYx-N--NUoOx5BCYOOSKOHuZSl83a8EqNY8G3YJH7YZfzRRr8eQYxwPUE-MEeQXdULJT-68fm1fqlhLbI51uOQsfEll-P01l4zDYovFy_slKdkdScA66qEurIDsyCc9sG4JhHwC56EeY5QQhJBaGoeVEKoWWc1MMxsdW9tGyRH6dbbZadwN/s320/100_7978.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3UYpDQJU0YazovGFLRoU3s96XC2NSOtXpqEiOlzByR1fH-nA6hjm3k7XykU8-7R3U_BExFtx8WwbCCPmPQnHakadLPt9brL0YXYw9pmBFZcgElynLnGCai4L4lrk9d4ByLMCYb4wk_N7R5pDgcrOJLo7eJXy5Bp5tmUVB0E1YaI-BDPJMjY2kEku2A1a/s3472/100_7976.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3472" data-original-width="2604" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3UYpDQJU0YazovGFLRoU3s96XC2NSOtXpqEiOlzByR1fH-nA6hjm3k7XykU8-7R3U_BExFtx8WwbCCPmPQnHakadLPt9brL0YXYw9pmBFZcgElynLnGCai4L4lrk9d4ByLMCYb4wk_N7R5pDgcrOJLo7eJXy5Bp5tmUVB0E1YaI-BDPJMjY2kEku2A1a/s320/100_7976.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #741b47;">Has this list been a timely reminder for you ?</span></i></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #741b47;">Have you tried to decrease your electricity usage ?</span></i></h2><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-31945099075394730652023-07-08T06:00:00.002+10:002023-07-08T06:00:00.147+10:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 8th July 2023<p> Our Make, Bake, Sew and Grow life is a little slower during the winter months. The garden doesn't need too much attention but I do try to pull a few weeds on the milder days. I've been doing some sewing for a new family member coming soon ( photos in a couple of months ). We've been eating some of our morning / afternoon snacks like muffins and slices from the freezer to make room for the next baking day. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Here's how we saved money this week - </span></b></h3><p>* Megan gave me a haircut. It was getting a bit long and the ends were dry.</p><p>* Cleaned the kettle with citric acid. It never ceases to amaze me how clean it looks after doing this. It's like a new kettle. </p><p>* Fed bread crusts, lettuce plants and grass to the chickens.</p><p>* Made 3 loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.</p><p>* Made up 2 bottles of surface spray with cooled, boiled water and a small dash of kitchen detergent. One bottle is for the kitchen and the other is kept in the laundry to clean the bathroom sinks and toilets.</p><p>* Filled the thermos with boiling water every morning for our cuppas during the day.</p><p>* Took my lunch and snacks with me when out and about doing my cleaning work.</p><p>* Made sausage rolls and a chocolate brownies for a family gathering. I made a double batch of the brownie so I could put some in the freezer for us to eat later.</p><p>* I made a bread pudding in the slow cooker using bread crusts ( heels ) I'd been saving and frozen. It's not very often I make dessert so it was thoroughly enjoyed and warmed us up on a cold night.</p><p>* I cooked a 1/2 leg of lamb in the slow cooker. Jessica came over for dinner that night. After slicing it up there was enough for the 3 of us, another 2 serves put in the freezer and I made a big pot of soup with the leftovers. The soup gave us 10 serves. So that was a total of 15 serves from a 1/2 leg that cost about $12 ( bought on sale for $10kg late last year ).</p><p>* I picked up some household bargains in Coles. They were clearing out nail brushes, bath sponges, small buckets dusters and cleaning equipment as well as other bits and pieces. Some of the items I'm using straight away and the rest went into the gift cupboard.</p><p>* I dug up a few potatoes and carrots, picked a capsicum and Wombok from our garden. The weather has been quite cold so I hadn't been in the garden for a while and the produce was a lovely surprise. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">LINKS -</span></b></h3><div><b><span style="color: #a64d79;"><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/wholemeal-bread-with-extra-goodness.html">Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness</a><br /></span></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/10/chocolate-brownies.html">Chocolate Brownies</a><br /></b></div><p><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2017/04/bread-pudding-in-slow-cooker.html"><b>Bread Pudding In The Slow Cooker</b></a><br /></p><p><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2015/02/cleaning-your-kettle.html"><b>Cleaning Your Kettle</b></a><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBJSslaTiXIf_hRs-Ln1h26FpZhGoaA6NYDgHij6CS4HSYlGN5OqOe5GE7IBlxcpNpFsWn4tJzuDOITB1qcuHt3lf-49eDg020tCuQD7BKtT-3boxQin_dpEo0yDXgIqUCKuIDieaEqTB1_xoEJhF4Mjps44Ng7E8nesXwsi40cL91mZMrFh56qtllXkwJ/s5152/IMG_3606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBJSslaTiXIf_hRs-Ln1h26FpZhGoaA6NYDgHij6CS4HSYlGN5OqOe5GE7IBlxcpNpFsWn4tJzuDOITB1qcuHt3lf-49eDg020tCuQD7BKtT-3boxQin_dpEo0yDXgIqUCKuIDieaEqTB1_xoEJhF4Mjps44Ng7E8nesXwsi40cL91mZMrFh56qtllXkwJ/s320/IMG_3606.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From our garden</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpWspH0gnOpGkABxe7eQYbM-PrfMb_GvKJbM_3m3HDxl9dqjAIGgT8fshHL1Ac21yLvlfCJ5o9AIEasUcnM1xP_1b81GpAXxtnECLr_t6kE_myZrncWplPb1xylnh5zcnpfcCA0bCjQu6INAJ9toT_ElAap4YQnq2TfvvM6DIx5sT1ZqNRRp42uJSnpb0j/s5152/IMG_3608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpWspH0gnOpGkABxe7eQYbM-PrfMb_GvKJbM_3m3HDxl9dqjAIGgT8fshHL1Ac21yLvlfCJ5o9AIEasUcnM1xP_1b81GpAXxtnECLr_t6kE_myZrncWplPb1xylnh5zcnpfcCA0bCjQu6INAJ9toT_ElAap4YQnq2TfvvM6DIx5sT1ZqNRRp42uJSnpb0j/s320/IMG_3608.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bargains from Coles</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYvZ_WuxIh-kZZQsty02v26lFOleV4yrb727dSJ2cSJi373Ze8GiCQ49qnX066_nOol-zya5d_BtOyJt4HWEL4YS-gwsHNhaFukD_PTNMonETLoAiM0wYDp7vboSDgzosrjiw3gfxYDZ_2oJrTSPjUrKkcoRnalibw37WuZNZzbgGsMTGyJCaVLb7qRiY/s5152/IMG_0561.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYvZ_WuxIh-kZZQsty02v26lFOleV4yrb727dSJ2cSJi373Ze8GiCQ49qnX066_nOol-zya5d_BtOyJt4HWEL4YS-gwsHNhaFukD_PTNMonETLoAiM0wYDp7vboSDgzosrjiw3gfxYDZ_2oJrTSPjUrKkcoRnalibw37WuZNZzbgGsMTGyJCaVLb7qRiY/s320/IMG_0561.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bread pudding in the slow cooker.<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><h2><span style="color: #990000;">Are you picking any produce from your garden ?</span></h2><div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;">How did you save money this week ?</span></h2><p><br /></p></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-50142748860176866292023-07-05T06:00:00.001+10:002023-07-05T06:00:00.147+10:0010 Ways To Turn Power Off In Your Home.<p>If you are living in Australia, your electricity and gas bills are about to go up ( again ). If you live elsewhere in the world then you've most likely already faced rising power bills.</p><p>No one wants to sit in the dark with no heating on. It's just not right and it's not good for your health. There might be a way to you to afford your power bills by turning off appliances you haven't thought of before.</p><p>Over the next 4 weeks I'll be sharing over 40 items you can turn off at the wall when not in use. This will eliminate standby / phantom power which is a complete waste of money. Some of these items you might not have in your home but your friends and family might. This could be a timely reminder for them so I'd encourage you to share these posts with everyone you know. You could be helping someone who is struggling.</p><p>1. Turn off the air freshener plug ins. These are the ones you plug in to the power point that have a glass bottle with liquid fragrance that heats up ( refills are available ). Perhaps turn them on when you have visitors coming.</p><p>2. Turn off the coffee machine and coffee grinder. You only use it a couple of times a day for a minute or two. No need to have it on all day.</p><p>3. Turn off the phone charging station. If there are no phones charging, don't keep the standby light on.</p><p>4. Turn off your computer / laptop when not in use. Gone are the days when you need to keep them on for the health of the device.</p><p>5. Turn off the wine cooler fridge. How often are you really needing the fridge ? Remember, there was a time when people stored wine without these appliances.</p><p>6. Turn off your printer. How many times have you printed a page then walked away without turning it off / It happens in our home from time to time.</p><p>7. Turn off the dishwasher as soon as the cycle finishes. Perhaps it needs to be used when you are going to be home for the duration of the cycle. As a cleaner I've seen many, many dishwashers left on even though the cycle finished hours ago.</p><p>8. Turn off your sewing machine. I always sew with the machine's light on as a way to know if the machine is on or off.</p><p>9. Turn off your exercise equipment ( treadmills etc ). My guess is they are only used for a short period of time, if at all.</p><p>10. Turn off portable heaters. If they are not in use then turn them off at the wall. This is an extra safety step too. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPKMND8m7kYND8U7PO34DW_tloqySst9wxKVKL7bCkEP9TYUpA_0aEb-Y92TnnOqfK0FZmnSOOT4Mb3SyWy_M8ACvqVyv8HbFb1HkRBm7B_95PHV8Wbn7_hOdFhmp-PNezjIWfN3ACKebu7cgiNyfbZUCAEyEol_kQz89XHw0jegbc2sPySAWHJ6Jhn_hF/s5152/IMG_0703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPKMND8m7kYND8U7PO34DW_tloqySst9wxKVKL7bCkEP9TYUpA_0aEb-Y92TnnOqfK0FZmnSOOT4Mb3SyWy_M8ACvqVyv8HbFb1HkRBm7B_95PHV8Wbn7_hOdFhmp-PNezjIWfN3ACKebu7cgiNyfbZUCAEyEol_kQz89XHw0jegbc2sPySAWHJ6Jhn_hF/s320/IMG_0703.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">Do you have any of these appliances you could turn off ?</span></i></h2><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-1248344605043053762023-07-01T06:00:00.001+10:002023-07-01T06:00:00.152+10:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 1st July 2023<p> At this time of the year, it's all about saving gas and electricity. Power prices will be going up by 25% on average as of today ( 1st July ) and we will be doing our very best to avoid bill shock.</p><p>It's been too cold to go outside most days so I've concentrated on decluttering, tidying and cleaning our home. I don't need to use any electricity for these tasks, it keeps me warm and gives me a sense of purpose. To be honest, it's too hot in Summer for these jobs.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #a64d79;">Here's my frugal list for the week -</span></i></h3><p>* Emptied the kitchen compost bucket into the outdoor compost bin every couple of days.</p><p>* Turned our heater down to 19 degrees Celsius during the day ( when we ARE home ). Since we put in the heat / vent deflectors we've noticed the house is much warmer.</p><p>* I've been having trouble finding trackpants in my size at the major department stores. After searching for weeks I thought I'd look in the girls section instead of the ladies section. They had more stock there, it was a little cheaper and I now know I can fit into a girls size 16.</p><p>* Used our thermos every day to store boiling water for our morning tea cuppas.</p><p>* Saved the washing machine rinse water, shower warm up water and drink bottle water. </p><p>* Used the dishwasher every second or third day. When we are eating meals from the freezer, it doesn't create many dishes and it takes a few days for the dishwasher to get full. Another bonus of bulk cooking.</p><p>* Used the solar lanterns each night.</p><p>* Made sure everything was turn off at the power point after dinner. The only exception is our fridge, freezers and one tv.</p><p>* Used blankets when watching tv at night. This eliminates the temptation to turn the heater back on after it turns off at 9pm.</p><p>* Darren found petrol for $1.66 and filled up his car. He then used 2 apps to get another 8 cents a litre off.</p><p>* Darren used various sales offers, discounts and vouchers to get a $40 scarf for $4 from Myer.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFnX80oUj1qRa1VDcJHVqzCu2u8kpeuUOng-T8wldG65TLYHnZvPK7JP8mWfUDXennmf_U2D_K6jrB75lIeZqO-EYiowcnvTFv1AJY6WIzU3JLgt9l682IQ_8KatB_xzuTWL-awKPnQoWaIdeQiSo-yC7wRqM2D88xZgaEyLHLgXAK0ZopWGZkmvdRfe6x/s5152/IMG_3444.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFnX80oUj1qRa1VDcJHVqzCu2u8kpeuUOng-T8wldG65TLYHnZvPK7JP8mWfUDXennmf_U2D_K6jrB75lIeZqO-EYiowcnvTFv1AJY6WIzU3JLgt9l682IQ_8KatB_xzuTWL-awKPnQoWaIdeQiSo-yC7wRqM2D88xZgaEyLHLgXAK0ZopWGZkmvdRfe6x/s320/IMG_3444.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charging our solar lanterns</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEideU_aStooSUfy_1BOK5ARl1qV5b3mm2i7uCwxlTWaS7sfAzoK91sJTC8pDupU1_4u8zG-zMLwlHiPzAuwKZSNlBPmH4HZpumfoXuIVEE0qnnCifloayUJSrPVJh0soEkSFM3QJSivZwODUkjpuXoCiDoVeuAqangLMzr0CX5tAHC0H4CDX_oYSogPmJH5/s3472/100_6355.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2604" data-original-width="3472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEideU_aStooSUfy_1BOK5ARl1qV5b3mm2i7uCwxlTWaS7sfAzoK91sJTC8pDupU1_4u8zG-zMLwlHiPzAuwKZSNlBPmH4HZpumfoXuIVEE0qnnCifloayUJSrPVJh0soEkSFM3QJSivZwODUkjpuXoCiDoVeuAqangLMzr0CX5tAHC0H4CDX_oYSogPmJH5/s320/100_6355.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blankets ready for cold nights.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">Do you have a plan to help offset rising power prices ?</span></i></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">How did you save money this week ?</span></i></h2><div><i><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></i></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-44373085441408967812023-06-28T06:00:00.001+10:002023-06-28T06:00:00.151+10:00 It's Time To Look At Your Shopping List Differently. Part 2<p>If you are struggling to put food on the table with constantly rising grocery prices, it's time to do things a little differently. When writing out your shopping list, ask yourself a few questions -</p><p><b><span style="color: #990000;">* Do we need it ? Can we go without ? Can we make it ourselves ? Is there a cheaper option ?</span></b></p><p>Last week I shared 6 ways you can save a small fortune on your grocery bill. This week I have another 6 ways to save and every single one of them I personally use for Darren and I. Our grocery budget is $120 a month for 2 adults and has been for about 18 months.</p><p>* Make your own. If you want to stretch your food budget so you can buy more or save money, then start making things from scratch. Jam is dirt cheap to make and even cheaper if you grow your own fruit or know someone who does. Make gravy from scratch instead of buying those little sachets or ready made. Make your own wedges / chips / fries instead of buying a bag. Make foaming hand wash, surface spray, custard, desserts, lasagnes. Cut you own veggies bake your own biscuits, cook your own pasta sauce.</p><p>* Bulk buying. Buying larger packets / bags is usually the cheaper option but make sure you know your prices. Also make sure you can use that quantity within a reasonable time frame. Go halves with friends or family to split the cost.</p><p>* Buy ingredients. A trolley full of ingredients will cost far less and provide more meals than a trolley full of processed food. My grocery bill is proof of this. Don't listen to the so called experts who report that healthy food is dearer than processed. My pantry, fridge and freezers are full of ingredients all bought for $120 ( or even less ) a month. I had a distant family member tell me recently that it's cheaper to buy a box of biscuit mix to make rather than buying ingredients. I don't think she understood the concept that buying ingredients might cost more upfront but can make many batches of biscuits. The box mix she uses only bakes maybe 12 - 18 biscuits in total.</p><p>* Less meat, more vegetables. I'm not going to tell anyone to give up meat. That's a personal choice and should be talked over with your doctor to make sure you get your nutrients elsewhere. Darren and I quite enjoy meat but you won't find a hunk of meat on our plates. On the rare occasion I cook a roast, I get 2 slices of meat and Darren might get 3. We fill up our plates with veggies and no one goes hungry. Chop suey, stews, soups and casseroles are a great way to have meat and stretch it further.</p><p>* Cut the treats and give as presents. If you like chocolate, chips and lollies, consider adding them to gifts within your family. They make great Christmas stocking stuffers or gift bag fillers for a birthday present and the recipient will be thrilled to get what they love to eat. This is the only way Darren and I can afford a food treat and not have it impact our grocery budget.</p><p>* Grow your own. Have a look at your shopping list. What fresh items do you buy regularly ? Could you start growing some of these ? Lettuce is super cheap, easy and quick to grow. It can be grown all year round in many areas. You can grow it in a pot or in the ground. Even if you start with this you could save $2 - $4 a week. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3jiZBpr_I_ePTa3IEBQWWou6wBSPSKuCvsyNuXLXQiDrWE1JatLe7N8A8zRuEzeXc1QQ42wCuSQu77VH9cSnEOQuTIg5sw_0W7jrNm0SDeVCRSAqBo8gPylT5Cu91qKRi3zUtqWesAJoT6C9fSwvRtD2Q8rFy19N4FnQVtUGpghUcWUDLn3taHwPzg/s3472/100_7729.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2604" data-original-width="3472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3jiZBpr_I_ePTa3IEBQWWou6wBSPSKuCvsyNuXLXQiDrWE1JatLe7N8A8zRuEzeXc1QQ42wCuSQu77VH9cSnEOQuTIg5sw_0W7jrNm0SDeVCRSAqBo8gPylT5Cu91qKRi3zUtqWesAJoT6C9fSwvRtD2Q8rFy19N4FnQVtUGpghUcWUDLn3taHwPzg/s320/100_7729.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOBALNdQflKbjSXDk8_ji9sAc9D8h3A8Bv1TT86nvzUHOlJ-cZnFZ0QR1sNM6lWU8-AAXXU3_7guz90WCQF367QlFt7CvolnX_QlqTkyj13nbY5Yimijx5r-zmLeK87nD6Be78DT9tneTUKqvXk61GOe3JehSMj4RTLS_lE8W2ZtmbSUcFeMThE0r_7Q/s3472/100_4930.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2604" data-original-width="3472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOBALNdQflKbjSXDk8_ji9sAc9D8h3A8Bv1TT86nvzUHOlJ-cZnFZ0QR1sNM6lWU8-AAXXU3_7guz90WCQF367QlFt7CvolnX_QlqTkyj13nbY5Yimijx5r-zmLeK87nD6Be78DT9tneTUKqvXk61GOe3JehSMj4RTLS_lE8W2ZtmbSUcFeMThE0r_7Q/s320/100_4930.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Are you looking at your shopping list differently ?</span></i></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">How are you cutting your grocery bill ?</span></i></h3><div><i><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></i></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-12909212064322331612023-06-24T06:00:00.001+10:002023-06-24T06:00:00.153+10:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 24th June 2023<p> We are well and truly in the depths of Winter here in Melbourne. This week the temperature has been between 11 - 15 degrees Celsius each day ( and much colder at night ) with lots of rain and cloud cover. It's been too cold to be in the garden so I've focused on indoor jobs to keep me warm.</p><p>Here's what I've been up to this week - </p><p>* Emptied the last of a bottle of shower gel into the foaming hand wash pump and added a little extra water. I had the bottle upside down for a couple of hours to make sure I got every last drop.</p><p>* Baked 3 loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness. I used recycled bread bags to store the bread in the freezer once I sliced it. I use these bags over and over again for the bread.</p><p>* Mended a coat and a pair of jeans. The fastener on the jeans had come off so I replaced it with a button.</p><p>* Dried almost everything on a clothes horse over the vent in our main bathroom. We rarely use this bathroom and keep the door closed so the washing dries within 24 hours.</p><p>* I did my monthly grocery shopping and used our Woolworths rewards card to get 10% off.</p><p>* I bought 'odd bunch ' carrots and potatoes from Woolworths to save a little extra money. The potatoes looked perfectly fine to me, nothing odd about them at all.</p><p>* The weather has been quite cold this week. I've kept the curtains closed except for a couple of inches so I can see where I'm walking. This has really helped to kept the temperature from dropping too quickly and keeping the heat in.</p><p>* Bought a new zip up hoodie jacket from Savers for $5.40. I've been on the hunt for a couple of zip up jackets which are great to wear to my cleaning jobs. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find them in the usual retail stores so maybe they are not popular this year.</p><p>* Saved the shower warm up water, washing machine rinse water and water from our drink bottles and reused it where I could around our home and garden.</p><p>* Used the solar lanterns most nights. With the weather being so overcast, there have been some nights when they haven't given much light.</p><p>* I bulk cooked honey mustard chicken ( 6 single serves ), veggie soup ( 11 single serves ) and cottage pie ( 8 single serves ) on separate nights at dinner time. We ate the meals as we usually do and the rest were frozen for future meals. This is much easier and less time consuming than setting aside a whole day to bulk cook.</p><p>* Baked the easy coconut slice I posted here a couple of months ago. Some was kept for our morning teas and the rest was taken to a family working bee.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">LINKS -</span></b></h3><div><b><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2015/03/honey-mustard-chicken.html">Honey Mustard Chicken</a><br /></span></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/08/wholemeal-bread-with-extra-goodness.html">Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness</a><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2023/05/easy-coconut-slice.html"><b>Easy Coconut Slice</b></a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2014/07/foaming-hand-wash-savings.html"><b>Foaming Hand Wash</b></a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-4ttEN1fuH-UhWxUhNn9RzbjOL-_zKyjj8eOGjP4tmWJTOlqt1SvNvP8gSnCMpKXTRIuz8w9K_Xm1uOvbq91h-mxYDBzWLDzCcHseSozpjutF4EZu18tqxnE2h4NM-NdcQHBY-XRS5TU-IEQjpGr6_wKUCQ7wCOImqa_hWGS7VzrjeP8pvSnzMYNMszRp/s5152/IMG_3602.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-4ttEN1fuH-UhWxUhNn9RzbjOL-_zKyjj8eOGjP4tmWJTOlqt1SvNvP8gSnCMpKXTRIuz8w9K_Xm1uOvbq91h-mxYDBzWLDzCcHseSozpjutF4EZu18tqxnE2h4NM-NdcQHBY-XRS5TU-IEQjpGr6_wKUCQ7wCOImqa_hWGS7VzrjeP8pvSnzMYNMszRp/s320/IMG_3602.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizTfHx5rlotRzbVfGQvYAwjQU6QKzLsG2Wx4KYe8limbSI8vVY8YKgFky2E9e00Mp1HRpOFuZ6eF42lpo9RI6fddeNmxnvAHxPuZUEAhThJxWLQRRaIeb_FtIuxgk_gRsiIm7tAN1xu0GrjzHwOv0yxfR1Hu6wGBnOQI0lntob95pjcOyJWVcUIfmtup8d/s5152/IMG_3601.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizTfHx5rlotRzbVfGQvYAwjQU6QKzLsG2Wx4KYe8limbSI8vVY8YKgFky2E9e00Mp1HRpOFuZ6eF42lpo9RI6fddeNmxnvAHxPuZUEAhThJxWLQRRaIeb_FtIuxgk_gRsiIm7tAN1xu0GrjzHwOv0yxfR1Hu6wGBnOQI0lntob95pjcOyJWVcUIfmtup8d/s320/IMG_3601.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Honey mustard chicken serve ready for the freezer</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc0o91HZNgVsK0sllIOxI-37P-M-a-HlglBYFUMq5yFdBXJKCMkfutH8qzsH3Hq6RamQlUQ0SCCFskyKCsAh4R11xCJuzIaAY0xNlgQJn0_B7ZHtaDkC7fhrLtbtgyYpw8q9knR7fQS7xAnpqXawExdQEU_iGQXuVRArtNCGNOEayC4qCYNXhqMDpgm5lq/s5152/IMG_3558.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc0o91HZNgVsK0sllIOxI-37P-M-a-HlglBYFUMq5yFdBXJKCMkfutH8qzsH3Hq6RamQlUQ0SCCFskyKCsAh4R11xCJuzIaAY0xNlgQJn0_B7ZHtaDkC7fhrLtbtgyYpw8q9knR7fQS7xAnpqXawExdQEU_iGQXuVRArtNCGNOEayC4qCYNXhqMDpgm5lq/s320/IMG_3558.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Easy coconut slice.<br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><h2><i><span style="color: #741b47;">How have you kept warm ( or cool ) this week ?</span></i></h2><div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #741b47;">How did you save time, money or energy this week ?</span></i></h2><p><br /></p></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-34601571702173177782023-06-21T06:00:00.002+10:002023-06-21T15:48:12.167+10:00Its Time To Look At Your Shopping List Differently. Part 1<p> The cost of living crisis is hitting many people hard. Prices are going up all the time and when it comes to the grocery bill, you never know how much it's going to cost from week to week. I've given up expecting certain items to cost a certain amount. It seems the prices change constantly.</p><p>If you want the cost of living crisis to have a minimal impact on your grocery bill, things need to change and the change has to come from you. </p><p>My grocery budget for Darren and I is $120 per MONTH and it's been at that amount for about 18 months. Has it been tough ? A little. Have we made changes to keep it that low ? YOU BET WE HAVE !!! And that's the trick. CHANGES !!!</p><p>Here are 7 ways to lower your food bill and still eat well.</p><p>* People expect to eat the same food and complain about rising prices. I don't know how many times I've come across people who insist on buying fancy steaks for their meals and then tell me food costs too much. Nothing's going to change if nothing changes. Steak is now a luxury. Save it for a special occasion.</p><p>* Trying different brands. Why do people feel the need to fill their pantries, fridges and freezers with branded products ? Who are you trying to impress ? If people are judging you on what brands you consume, you might want to rethink your friends. Unless it's curry powder, chocolate, tea, coffee or tomato soup, it doesn't matter what the brand is. It will still do the job. Remember, flour is flour and sugar is sugar. I use generic flour to bake all our biscuits, slices, cakes and breads and it works perfectly.</p><p>* Going without the extras like lavish sauces / gravies, gourmet oils ( avocado, coconut etc ), fancy cheeses, deli meats, recipe bases etc. You know what I'm talking about. These items are like icing on a cake. It's nice to have but not needed. Save them for special occasions.</p><p>* Portion controlling food. Have a look at how much you are putting on your plate. Could you eat a little less ? If the meal is meant to serve 6, are you only getting 4 or 5 serves ? Could you stretch the meal to 7 serves ?</p><p>* Eating whole foods. I'm not necessarily talking about going to a whole food store and spending a fortune on overpriced nuts and flours. If you are hungry, eat an apple or banana. Think back to when you were a child. What did you eat in your lunchbox ? It was most likely whole foods. </p><p>* Cooking simple meals. No one can sustain a Master Chef menu. That tv show doesn't know what a food budget is. Meat and 3 veg, casseroles, stews, pasta or bakes are comfort foods without the high price tag. If you'd like some budget friendly, tasty meals then have a look in the recipe section on this blog. I personally cook every one of those meals on my tight budget and there are no expensive ingredients.</p><p>* Expensive dinners as a treat. We all like a good roast don't we ? Or steak, or salmon for example. Salmon is one of my favourite meats but we don't have it just because I like it. Salmon is saved for my Mother's Day meal or my birthday and you can bet I thoroughly enjoy it. Best of all, it doesn't blow our budget because we know it's a treat.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKe_F39akKHGPx2jOTcJ1R08WxJTnAH7DQwox47tz_AH9pvyDJqY_N6zDm_53gwm9xttMMDfEPaXpIrrehZGhyFUhkBZ2CUnn8tL8lDm1g1Q0EqB1MMGDDEMluZuwCkLMQmgRLEreEwWyVPyl0GX0ZttNC1nE2zJCFkYOdgo6HLh3JfTD2igRUhHAuA/s3472/100_5768.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2604" data-original-width="3472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKe_F39akKHGPx2jOTcJ1R08WxJTnAH7DQwox47tz_AH9pvyDJqY_N6zDm_53gwm9xttMMDfEPaXpIrrehZGhyFUhkBZ2CUnn8tL8lDm1g1Q0EqB1MMGDDEMluZuwCkLMQmgRLEreEwWyVPyl0GX0ZttNC1nE2zJCFkYOdgo6HLh3JfTD2igRUhHAuA/s320/100_5768.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAABrBUC6BG0H01OvXsHXDp8lbESZ0hmjubZE3V1iuJRbtyE8bKhK-fZi0tYPLAyUsbJI8oqaA5vtCr-gV4tWUEwIHRjlIFxXgcDnRide2MFq-hKTVIraNtQs88gFizjKrTfu2vdpzRjuScUVxQgfFOdrSKZwPpARzkon79jJoyr6aQaIFHmY5jVdZA/s3472/100_5088.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2604" data-original-width="3472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAABrBUC6BG0H01OvXsHXDp8lbESZ0hmjubZE3V1iuJRbtyE8bKhK-fZi0tYPLAyUsbJI8oqaA5vtCr-gV4tWUEwIHRjlIFxXgcDnRide2MFq-hKTVIraNtQs88gFizjKrTfu2vdpzRjuScUVxQgfFOdrSKZwPpARzkon79jJoyr6aQaIFHmY5jVdZA/s320/100_5088.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Are you looking at your shopping list differently ?</span></i></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">How are you cutting your grocery bill ?</span></i></h3><div><i><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></i></div>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-66792510934484054802023-06-17T06:00:00.001+10:002023-06-17T06:00:00.134+10:00This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday !7th June 2023<p> 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 ).</p><p>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. </p><p><b><span style="color: #38761d;">So the following list of frugal tasks is what we managed to get done since the 20th of May.</span></b></p><p>* I depilled a scarf using a fabric shaver. It came up looking almost new again.</p><p>* Made choc chip biscuits for morning teas using dough I'd made and frozen previously.</p><p>* 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.<br /></p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* Made up a big bottle of heavily diluted Dynamo laundry liquid.</p><p>* I made 10 wholemeal bread rolls for Darren's work lunches.</p><p>* 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.</p><p>* Gratefully received lemons, passionfruit and mandarins from a friend.</p><p>* Picked a handful of blackberries and a couple of mandarins from our garden. </p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig4dh4t6IJJyixbuYiCw-m7qWT-W8NeQ3LW0CUPRSNMygZciEcWRyXdOazGZu4KOS-xTbz3YYq_xY2fOkO3uqv8eBaWEWXxJYfW3oBZJd_f_by9kHVKkeMNMATvC4aQ9Gt9yyYAStOwEkVmYU1wcaKaTvf8IX6fItWQ2RJsgzvrY1JdTjIdl8cYV0prA/s5152/IMG_3562%20-%20Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig4dh4t6IJJyixbuYiCw-m7qWT-W8NeQ3LW0CUPRSNMygZciEcWRyXdOazGZu4KOS-xTbz3YYq_xY2fOkO3uqv8eBaWEWXxJYfW3oBZJd_f_by9kHVKkeMNMATvC4aQ9Gt9yyYAStOwEkVmYU1wcaKaTvf8IX6fItWQ2RJsgzvrY1JdTjIdl8cYV0prA/s320/IMG_3562%20-%20Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freezer meals.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDViZbq6sbBMZART0C_X0h69jzxgWpOIwBWKXLJi_giTUtujLrgEq-Afg67Tjkeii60cWPk4f-DOXKgdmokZL1eMqxThEM9g5fzEiLKaIqUqD189fFjaZg__5tUPJJn9sSzYKQGjO2xKXascZC-57ZDHb5xy8xuyEZpb3mzY98JsgioZudNGDLbkt7DQ/s5152/IMG_3552.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDViZbq6sbBMZART0C_X0h69jzxgWpOIwBWKXLJi_giTUtujLrgEq-Afg67Tjkeii60cWPk4f-DOXKgdmokZL1eMqxThEM9g5fzEiLKaIqUqD189fFjaZg__5tUPJJn9sSzYKQGjO2xKXascZC-57ZDHb5xy8xuyEZpb3mzY98JsgioZudNGDLbkt7DQ/s320/IMG_3552.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of freezer meals.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZ3QdQu8k0qf2LBhgnYYIq0iDg6eo4PeaiYzPh7MrabgL_zAaoishCj6SNXhNKGHEs9wpTropPaABSpQjSZAOnrcAm8ouSKWdVXkGgY6sGQJPYurgiyh5BJw0-WjtVQazqgWUO1bvCi3jsJVr3G2njum6mLCWER5Ydxj43GEX6JSjgvMDI6ce1jfUAg/s5152/IMG_3515.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZ3QdQu8k0qf2LBhgnYYIq0iDg6eo4PeaiYzPh7MrabgL_zAaoishCj6SNXhNKGHEs9wpTropPaABSpQjSZAOnrcAm8ouSKWdVXkGgY6sGQJPYurgiyh5BJw0-WjtVQazqgWUO1bvCi3jsJVr3G2njum6mLCWER5Ydxj43GEX6JSjgvMDI6ce1jfUAg/s320/IMG_3515.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade choc chip biscuits.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">How have you saved time, money or energy this week ?</span></i></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">Do you have a stockpile of freezer meals for emergencies ?</span></i></h2><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-70346828113427733402023-06-14T06:00:00.013+10:002023-06-14T06:00:00.147+10:00What's Stinking Up Your Home ? Part 2<p>Following on from last week's post, here are another 6 areas that can get on the nose and ways to deal with them. </p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Linen cupboard.</span></b> Linens stored for too long end up with a stale smell. Try adding soaps between linens, using scented drawer liners or rotating linens often.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Kitchen sink.</span></b> Rotting food would be the biggest culprit of smelly drains. Please don't wash your food down the sink. The bi carb, vinegar and boiling water trick sort of works but doesn't kill the bacteria. Pour a little bit of bleach down the plug hole and let it sit there for at least 10 minutes. Wash away with cold water.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Pet bedding.</span></b> Wash your pet's bed every week or have a variety of blankets or towels to line the bed with. Washing the towels might be easier in Winter. Also, don't forget to wash your dog often. I know it's common sense but I've been around many smelly dogs in people's homes and the owners usually can't smell it.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Kitty litter.</span></b> When we had Princess, we always kept the kitty litter in the laundry, out of the way. We changed the litter once a week and scooped the mess out every day. Sprinkling a little bi carb helped with odours and putting the litter in the sun also helped to dry it out. It doesn't matter what kitty litter you use, they all smell and need to be cleaned out often.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Vacuum cleaner.</span></b> Household smells are absorbed by the vacuum cleaner and blown out the exhaust / air outlet. Dog smells would have to be the worst offenders. If you can, switch to a bagless vacuum cleaner or empty the cloth / paper bag often. I have a $79 Kmart bagless vacuum cleaner and the suction is better than what my Dyson was.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Stale smelling bedrooms.</span></b> This could happen for a variety of reasons. People spending too much time in the room with the door closed, not enough ventilation, consuming food, dirty plates, overflowing rubbish bins, dirty linens, piles of dirty clothes. The list could go on. Keeping the door wide open and a window opened a little will really help the situation. If the air is not free flowing then mould and bacteria in the soft furnishings will build up.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBS1kKfuq4jdGXEqb1foJaVXKbGqRbNO_OvQW61JskaCpNo9W8g__sh28aSFhP_pXISDzUjKUaw6Dt6D89O5Zzy10ltyujMIvB-loFG7IMwBNIJIdBHPULS5VBoON6hkYUPpyXa_59RhDlKn6ce8tSKo4KUWI1QXgGwtGLmmjrks2M-xbRgES_wtZyeg/s3472/100_7863.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2604" data-original-width="3472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBS1kKfuq4jdGXEqb1foJaVXKbGqRbNO_OvQW61JskaCpNo9W8g__sh28aSFhP_pXISDzUjKUaw6Dt6D89O5Zzy10ltyujMIvB-loFG7IMwBNIJIdBHPULS5VBoON6hkYUPpyXa_59RhDlKn6ce8tSKo4KUWI1QXgGwtGLmmjrks2M-xbRgES_wtZyeg/s320/100_7863.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiak8zjmRA0yCqPfRaEeGN17cKwC656MooGre8ychLp7K_oLhYYrj-T1zSgSUoerC0iaJ4zwTrTLy4iRfgsRtkm7jrwjRA6UKJpu6sy4PdFgcCOHt51PosMpwPTRlGEo1N7A-mHpQXV8quKCXVSVbtnXQzH-zeVuHEX3B6ospx9ViHdO0B2xRpt9IXGjQ/s5152/IMG_3533.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiak8zjmRA0yCqPfRaEeGN17cKwC656MooGre8ychLp7K_oLhYYrj-T1zSgSUoerC0iaJ4zwTrTLy4iRfgsRtkm7jrwjRA6UKJpu6sy4PdFgcCOHt51PosMpwPTRlGEo1N7A-mHpQXV8quKCXVSVbtnXQzH-zeVuHEX3B6ospx9ViHdO0B2xRpt9IXGjQ/s320/IMG_3533.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">How do you deal with these smells in your home ?</span></i></h2><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-88889315933243313642023-06-10T12:40:00.001+10:002023-06-10T12:40:46.289+10:00Frugal Tasks Will Be Back Next Week.<p> My Frugal Tasks post has been missing for the last few weeks for a reason. Both Darren and I have been sick and are now in the recovery stage. At one point I was in bed for a few days with the chills.</p><p>Just getting very basic tasks done too all our energy. We were very grateful for a freezer full of cooked meals, a well stocked pantry and enough fridge items to keep us going.</p><p>Hopefully next Saturday I'll be able to share the frugal tasks we have completed as well as the blessings that came our way.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwDkd5_OSAgnvijAnHELbGGPf2hfD1sSB4L-NxFo0QhXgKQjEEkCXn747jCq2yiAtLpUxLHx_W30LfGN0Q_c2gfataznVQmvsjL6xHyXONay1audMMRELcV0faqZDbiJFS5kgclpcHgblA3VoPcfweXmLel7_7_I7MiMK-6XWGOHv4yrHPazCoDdU5ow/s5152/IMG_3137.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwDkd5_OSAgnvijAnHELbGGPf2hfD1sSB4L-NxFo0QhXgKQjEEkCXn747jCq2yiAtLpUxLHx_W30LfGN0Q_c2gfataznVQmvsjL6xHyXONay1audMMRELcV0faqZDbiJFS5kgclpcHgblA3VoPcfweXmLel7_7_I7MiMK-6XWGOHv4yrHPazCoDdU5ow/s320/IMG_3137.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122163157306498894.post-50171401291078962432023-06-07T06:00:00.002+10:002023-06-07T06:00:00.165+10:00What's Stinking Up Your Home ? Part 1<p> Have you ever walked into your home after a day out and noticed your home has a smell about it ? It makes you wonder if visitors can smell something too. As a cleaner of well over 20 years, I've developed a very sensitive nose when it comes cleanliness. Here is a list of guilty culprits and ways to eliminate the odours -</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Rubbish bin.</span></b> If you've put raw meat scraps or fruit in your bin, this could be the reason for the smell. Perhaps empty your bin more often or reduce the bin size. Start a compost bucket for fruit and veggie scraps and empty every day or so.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Towels</span></b>. Odours can build up for various reasons. Not washing yourself thoroughly, not hanging the towel up, folding the towel over, old towels, towels not drying completely, or not washing the towel often enough can contribute to the smell. Generally it's good to wash your towel every 3 or 4 days to reduce the chance of smells. A good airing on the clothesline can greatly help too. So does spraying your towels with vinegar before placing in the washing machine.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Toilet.</span></b> Urine splashes around the toilet is the most common cause of toilet smells. Wiping the toilet, floor and walls on a very regular basis will help with the smell. I spray vinegar on the floor once a week and leave it for a few minutes before wiping away. Keeping your toilet lid closed when flushing will keep the germs in the bowl.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Exhaust Fan in kitchen.</span></b> Odours from frying food are in the grease trapped in the filters. If the filters are small enough, clean them in the dishwasher. Otherwise, get out your pressure washer to clean the filters outside. Even a kettle of boiling water will help.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Fridge.</span></b> Spills left in the fridge, rotten food and dairy are usually the guilty culprits. Clean out your fridge once a week even if it's just a few shelves at a time. Maybe you are buying too much food and don't use it quick enough. I use kitchen detergent and water to clean my fridge but I've heard a little bit of vanilla essence on a cloth helps with odours. So too does bi carb in a bowl.</p><p><b><span style="color: #a64d79;">* Wet washing in the washing machine, dryer or basket.</span></b> If your washing has accidently been left in the washing machine etc and it smells, don't dry the washing as it is. It will need to be rewashed with a bit of disinfectant to kill the germs and odours. I had a cleaning client who insisted on leaving wet washing in her dryer for days. Eventually she'd turn the dryer on but it never got rid of the smell. I know because I made their beds with smelly linens.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyfdh-5XCHl3kfgr0kq_v1JSOcT_6PbD84bJWcK2uL-PGJVkhP145lhiM_4o1b9lsdtYAPNLWKs2xow-g766z_yAJoZe9lHFfsT58WO_DZ50y8s7iYBBM_hOHozMd47T2S86TgzvFfGH5wC5HTuKW3Qol36xcEIqREWqjxl78pc9qV1sveU-SUyOUT7w/s5152/IMG_3476.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyfdh-5XCHl3kfgr0kq_v1JSOcT_6PbD84bJWcK2uL-PGJVkhP145lhiM_4o1b9lsdtYAPNLWKs2xow-g766z_yAJoZe9lHFfsT58WO_DZ50y8s7iYBBM_hOHozMd47T2S86TgzvFfGH5wC5HTuKW3Qol36xcEIqREWqjxl78pc9qV1sveU-SUyOUT7w/s320/IMG_3476.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQeDzY3TcZYZQOb1NhJ4dbA33fLUJW9WGTEkDC23sTpzAlooAxtYkEHRtG9_u-F5xwylQPyvyjzoAocp-7w-_ZeLkZQs6Wlc22WAAZu9czjNEFnCCxv60lTqhZJa7ZjOuoMzA3qWA1E7ZnfTx2b_DR_eKLjKA_cPtl12P2TVYzy3na002UpkyqPtkt8g/s3472/100_5007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2604" data-original-width="3472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQeDzY3TcZYZQOb1NhJ4dbA33fLUJW9WGTEkDC23sTpzAlooAxtYkEHRtG9_u-F5xwylQPyvyjzoAocp-7w-_ZeLkZQs6Wlc22WAAZu9czjNEFnCCxv60lTqhZJa7ZjOuoMzA3qWA1E7ZnfTx2b_DR_eKLjKA_cPtl12P2TVYzy3na002UpkyqPtkt8g/s320/100_5007.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">How do you deal with these odours in your home ?</span></i></h2><p><br /></p>Wendy Gowerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01079131126381265901noreply@blogger.com6