This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 11th November 2023

 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.

Here's the latest list -

*  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.

*  Darren made pork sausage rolls.  He added potato and silverbeet from our garden to bulk them out.

*  Picked lemons from our tree and froze the juice.

*  Gratefully received extra groceries from Megan when the supermarket accidently delivered the same order twice.

*  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.

*  I picked up a couple of items of clothing from Savers when they had a 50% off sale on a couple of months ago.

*  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.

*  Baked and sold some muffins to a cleaning client.

*  Charged the vacuum cleaner and Darren's shaver on sunny days.

*  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.

*  Darren and I used a gift card to go to the movies.

*  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.

*  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.   

*  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.

*  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.  

*  I resprayed some outdoor side tables that were looking a bit rough.  I used Rustoleum spray paint with is also a primer.

*  I made a big bowl of egg custard with milk we couldn't use up quick enough.

LINKS - 

Pumpkin scones

Chocolate choc chip muffins

Laundry liquid

Egg Custard

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

Rosemary from our garden

The leftover free mulch

Homemade laundry liquid

Egg custard

Revamped side tables

                                                            In the garden

Do you make your own laundry powder or liquid ?

How have you saved money this week ?

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 4th November 2023

 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  !!!

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. 

Here's a list of what we've been up to over the last few weeks ( or months ).

*  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. 

*  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.

*  Picked silverbeet,  sugar snap peas and cauliflower from our garden to provide veggies for our meals.

*  Made enough air freshener / room fragrance to last the next 12 - 18 months.

*  Baked wholemeal bread rolls for Darren's work lunches.

*  Dug up 6 small raspberry plants that I will be selling in a couple of weeks.  

*  Sold a couple of unwanted items on Marketplace.

*  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.

*  Picked flowers from our garden on numerous occasions.  The colors we have growing are just gorgeous and really do brighten my day.

*  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.

*  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.

*  Made brown sugar from scratch.

*  Gratefully received lots of gift bags and some glass jars ( for jam making ) from a few people.

*  Baked wholemeal bread with extra goodness.

Homemade air freshener

Handmade soap

Natural handmade soap

From our garden

The latest potato haul

Huge potatoes

Getting ready for Spring planting

Picked sugar snap peas

 

Knitted dish cloths

Luka still loves the free entertainment

LINKS

Air Freshener . Room Spray

Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness

Brown Sugar

How have you saved money this week ?

Are you Spring planting or getting ready for Winter ?

My Blogging Absence Explained.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

If our life continues on the calmer path it has been for the last week,  I hope to start blogging again very shortly.

                                   A Day Trip To One Foot Island in Aitutaki

                                                     Our Resort In Aitutaki

The view every day for every meal.

                                                  Our Resort in Rarotonga

                                                             Our Family

Luka and " his ' bubba.

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 22nd July 2023

 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.

Here's how we managed to save money even when we had a crazy busy week - 

*  Dried most of the washing over the ducted heating vents.

*  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.

*  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.

*  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.

*  I saved the shower warm up water and drink bottle water and Darren used it for the pot plants outside. 

*  I did my monthly grocery shop on Monday and used the 10% off Everyday Rewards offer to save extra money.

*  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.

*  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.

*  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.

*  Darren fed the compost bin every couple of days with kitchen scraps.

*  I fed bread crusts,  weeds,  leftover watermelon and veggies to the chickens.  No food is wasted in our home.  It all has a purpose.

*  Portioned out and froze any leftover gravy from the roast lamb dinner.

*  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.

*  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. 

*  I dug up a few potatoes and the last carrot from our garden.

Our potato patch.

In the garden

  

In the garden.

Luka and Bryson watching the new washing machine

Entertainment.

Bryson is thrilled to 'help' Nanny.

Homemade biscuits.

Luka playing with the new mats

Compatible with Lego

The colors included.

I dug up our last carrot.

Are you on the look out for any great deals / discounts ?

How have you saved time,  money and energy this week ?

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 15th July 2023

 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.

Here's how we saved money this week -

*  I made a big batch of pita chips.

*  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.

*  Limited our heater usage on the sunny days and turned the thermostat down to 19 degrees Celsius.

*  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.

*  Saved the washing machine rinse water and shower warm up water to pour back into the washing machine.

*  Baked three loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.  I used recycled bread bags to store the bread in the freezer.

*  Darren baked 10 wholemeal bread rolls for his work lunches.

*  Gratefully received a large whole watermelon and some croissants.  

*  Used the solar lanterns every night after dinner.

LINKS -

Chop Suey - Aussie Style

Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness

Pita Chips

Home baked bread

Sewing I did for a baby shower

Bath towel,  hand towel and face washer set

How have you saved time,  money or energy this week ?

10 Ways To Turn Power Off In Your Home - Part 2

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.

Following on from last week,  here are another 10 items you can turn off at the power point -

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.

2.  Turn your electric toothbrushes off when not charging.  From memory they only need an hour to  recharge.

3.  Turn off your electric reclining chairs.  That function doesn't need to be available 24 / 7 unless you are sitting in the chair.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Has this list been a timely reminder for you ?

Have you tried to decrease your electricity usage ?