My Abundant Life: This Week's Frugal Tasks 21st November 2015

Over the last few weeks I've had to slash our family budget due to a big reduction of income from my cleaning jobs. My frugal list might not have big or grand savings but everything I do helps our bottom line. Here's what I got up to this week -

* Made a batch of yoghurt

* Picked a small handful of strawberries each day.

* Made a double batch of pumpkin scones. Most went into the freezer for morning teas

* Made lavender room air freshener for about $1

* Shopped for the first time with a reduced grocery budget of $200 for the month. It was a challenge but I kept to budget by crossing items of my shopping list that were not really needed.

* Watered my transplanted raspberry plants each day with saved shower warm up water

* Bought two bags of mixed nuts in their shells for $5 a bag from Aldi. Last year I bought them in Coles for $7 as I couldn't find them anywhere else. Glad about the cheaper price. These will be given as Christmas presents ( with other things ) to some of the men in my family

* Picked and ate the first raspberry for the season. So yummy and rich in flavour.

* Dried all the washing on the line and clothes horses.

* Kept the heater off all week. I've now turned it off at the thermostat.

* Only turned the cooling on when really needed. I've kept the curtains closed on the hot days.

* Bought a punnet of lettuce seedlings from Bunnings for $2.90. I picked the punnet that had the most seedlings in. Some had 10 but I found one with 14. I've tried growing lettuce from seed twice this season but they just aren't growing. I'll still be saving money with the seedlings because lettuces cost $1 - $3 each.

* Ate out of the freezer a few nights this week. Slowly, slowly we are making room ( and saving money ).

* Combined lots of little shopping errands into one trip