My Abundant Life: This Week's Frugal Tasks 12th December 2015

I'm not sure where my week went. We were travelling on Sunday then unpacking. Monday and Tuesday I was at work. Wednesday I finished the very last of the Christmas shopping. Thursday I fluffed around the house doing this and that ( baking etc ) and re organising my pantry and Friday I spent the day at Cath's talking. In between all of that I managed to get most of the housework done and wrap the final Christmas presents. Phew !!! Here's what else we got up to -

* Collected six brown paper bags from the Sovereign Hill shopping trip. I asked the family to get one each time they shopped. I'll be recycling them and giving them a makeover

* Cut up three cereal packets to put between chops and hamburger patties when I freeze them

* Used a Coles gift card that was given to us to buy our holiday food.

* We bought as much food and snacks as we could from home to save us money on our holiday to Ballarat.

* We used holiday spending money to eat out when we were in Ballarat. Nothing was put on credit.

* Kept the curtains closed on hot days.

* Picked a small handful of raspberries and a few strawberries each day.

* Sold some eggs.

* Filled up both cars with petrol when it came down to $1.12 per litre then used a discount docket to get another 4 cents a litre off.

* Cut out lots of images to use in card making and gift wrapping. These images were freebies from some card making brochures.

* Made lots of pita chips.

* Made dried bread crumbs from saved up bread crusts in the freezer

* Darren and I made some Christmas cards using what i had on hand. This is our first year of making Christmas cards, so they are a little basic. We'll get better as we get more ideas ( and time ).

* Blessed my friend Cath with a raspberry plant Darren grew from a cutting. I wrapped it up using saved plastic from store bought flowers. Cath loved it and can't wait to pick her own raspberries next year. These plants retail for $15 in Bunnings. I also gave her a bunch of hydrangeas from our garden ( her fav. flower ).

* Stocked up on half price grocery specials of batteries.and crumbed fish.

* Picked silverbeet for one meal.

* Gratefully received some zucchinis and cranberries from Cath.

* Found some balls of Bendigo Mill 100% cotton for $3.60 and some netting for knitting padded coat hangers also for $3.60. I used my discount card to get the price down from $3.99 each. The netting will be also used to make bows for cards and other craft.

* Did the usual water saving tasks for the washing machine, shower and kitchen sink.