My Abundant Life: This Week's Frugal Tasks 18th July 2015

With the weather being so cold this week I've tried to stay busy on my days at home. I just love cooking and baking good wholesome food for my family and as Annabel says " feathering my nest ". I had a lovely day with Cath form the Cheapskates Club. Of course we talked about all things frugal as well as the up coming Adelaide workshop. So exciting !!! Here's what else I got up to this week -

* Made a couple of cards for my stash.

* Made up lots of biscuits using a packet mix bought after Christmas for 5 cents. It was meant to be a gingerbread house but I don't have time for such a fiddly thing.

* Emptied the bottom of the wheat bix packet into the Dried Seasoned Bread Crumbs container and gave it a good shake.

* Kept the curtains 90% closed during the cold days. They were open just enough so that we could see our way around the house.

* Hand washed the dinner dishes a few time this week.

* Fed the chickens handfuls of grass and clover to keep their vitamins up during the cold weather

* Finished using up two lipsticks by digging down into the tube to get every last bit of it. I got another 6 weeks use out of each one.

* Found an old eye shadow in my travel toiletry bag that didn't have enough in it to take away. So I've put it in the bathroom cupboard and have been using it every day.

* Bought my mum a bunch of flowers for her birthday. The tissue paper the florist used went soggy straight away and wasn't a nice color. So I used some of my stash of florist colored plastic wrap to make it look better with craft ribbon I had on hand. Gave my mum a handmade card from my supplies.

* .Made a bulk batch of fruit crumble topping mix.

* Redeemed a rain check for 4 litres of Moro olive oil for $20. I've had this rain check for almost 12 months but waited until I was low on stock in the pantry ( and I needed the room to store it ).

* Wiped out the fridge using water and a microfibre cloth. I saved the water from rinsing out the cloth and used it to water some pot plants outside.

* Came in under budget for groceries from June 16 - July 15. I only spent $237 out of $270. The left over money went into the food slush fund to buy future food specials.

* Bought lots of chicken fillets from Tasman Meats for $5.99kg. They were portioned into meal sizes and frozen.

* Made a double batch of pumpkin scones using cooked and mashed pumpkin I'd frozen last year when it was cheap.

* Saved the washing machine water and dried most of the clothes on clothes horses.

* Made 1 litre of homemade yoghurt.

* Froze 3 single serves of left over meals. I'm trying to get a stash together as next Tuesday is the last of my major dental work. I'll only be able to eat pureed vegetable soup and custard for a few days so I won't be wanting to cook for the family.