My Abundant Life: This Week's Frugal Tasks 16th January 2016

Here's what we got up to in the Gower house this week -

* Diluted a bottle of Windex. I only use it on the kitchen window and there was about an inch left in the bottle. I'm not really wanting to buy a refill so as soon as it's used up, I'll try making my own solution with detergent, vinegar and water. I'll let you all know when I make it up.

* Gratefully accepted two scarfs from Jessica when she was cleaning out her room. One is a red check and great for Winter. The other is a light weight cream one great for slightly warmer weather.

* Donated lots of bags of clothes, shoes and bedroom bits and pieces to Savers and received lots of discount stamps for future purchases.

* Cut up last year's Christmas cards to make gift tags.

* Fixed Princess's scratching post. It was falling apart and Jessica wanted to buy a new one. Out came my hot glue gun and it almost looks as good as new ( almost ).

* Made another 19 hand towels to give as presents. I have a wonderful stockpile now. I'm thinking of giving them with a hand made soap wrapped together in a cellophane bag.

* Bought a roll of tulle from Savers for $1.99 less 5% discount. I'll be using it instead of ribbons on presents.

* Took the soap out of the moulds. In the warmer weather it seems the soap needs a few extra days to harden before touching. A couple of bars will need a little smoothing to look better.

* Bought another rose mould for soap making. It was $1.99 at Savers less 15% discount

* Bought two more Tupperware collapsable containers for $3.99 less 15% discount from Savers. These will make great presents filled with biscuit and tied with a ribbon.

* Stocked up on glue sticks from Big W at $1.21 per stick. Bargain.

* Picked a handful of beans every couple of days. We also picked lettuce for quite a few meals.

* Our tomatoes are ripening so I'm picking them just as they turn orange then ripening them on the kitchen windowsill.

* Only spent $13 this week on milk, fruit and veg. We've been eating out of the freezers, pantry and fridge.

* Sent a handmade gift of a couple of hand towels for a friend's birthday this week.

* Saved the shower warm up water to water all our potted plants and fruit trees.

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Here are the rose soaps I made last week. The rose petals look great here but a couple of days later they had mostly turned brown. Not happy. We'll have to use them instead of giving them as presents..

One batch of soap mixture made all of these. So happy with the variety of moulds

I used the mould Mimi sent me. They look great don't they ?

More hand towels were made. This material had to be washed over and over again to get rid of the excess dye.

Using a different colored hand towel. Darren likes this color. Maybe we'll keep some for our kitchen.

Using material from a pillow case I found in the op shop. So pretty.

I was reading Annabel's blog when Princess jumped up and started being cute with me.

With my de cluttering, I came across the flowers from our engagement cake ( 21 years old ). They were in a container in the back of my wardrobe. I hadn't known what to do with them. Putting them in a vase seems like a great idea. They are now on displaying in the tv unit.