My Abundant Life: This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 23rd April 2016

I've spent most of the week pottering around our home sorting, tidying, de cluttering, pulling weeds, watering, baking and cooking. So much to do and so much fun doing it. We might not have the grandest , biggest home but our home is our haven. Mouth watering fragrances come from the kitchen and our girls love to guess what I've been cooking. Fresh flowers cut from the garden bring joy to each day and elegance money can't buy. Here's what I got up to this week -

* Made a batch of plain scones to take to the Cheapskates card making day. I also took my raspberry jam to spread on top. Very yummy. The rest of the scones were frozen for future morning teas.

* Made a batch of pumpkin soup with a butternut pumpkin we were blessed with. The leftovers were frozen in single serves for Winter lunches.

* Gratefully received a shape punch and a couple of patterned papers from the swap table at the card making day.

* Washed all the donated glass jars given to me over the last few weeks. Now they are ready for use.

* Ate homemade freezer meals two nights this week.

* Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.

* I bought another $7.90 cooked chicken. This time I was able to get 21 serves from the one chicken. I made a pot of chunky chicken and vegetable soup using the stock I made and any meat left on the carcass. This gave me nine singles serves of soup. When I peeled down the chicken I portioned the meat into 4 single serves for a sandwich, and two lots of meat that will be put into a pasta bake that can feed the four of us.. I don't think I can stretch the chicken any more. I did have another portion of stock leftover that I've frozen.

.* Saved the bank statement envelopes. The inside of the envelope is patterned and can be used for card making.

* Gratefully received a petrol discount docket in the mail. Thankyou Tania xoxo

* Gratefully received a few more jam jars from another friend.

* Stocked up on TRESemme shampoo and conditioner. It's on sale at IGA for $4.99 which is better than half price.

* Saved the washing machine water for each next load. Saved the kitchen water and reused it to swish out the sinks, soak the saucepans and water the raspberry plants.

* Saved the ribbon wrapped around a blanket Jessica bought. Saved a couple of rubber bands wrapped around the junk mail. Also saved a couple of bells and ribbons from the Lindt bunnies we are working our way through from Easter.

* Organised my jam and relish jars stored in the shed. I now have the jam jars separated into another box. Relish jars smell quite strong even after they have been washed many times. I don't like to use them for jam for this reason. Now I won't have to dig around for jars when I need them.

* Found a few more items to donate to the op shop. Over at The Cheapskates Club I've set up a " De cluttering Tally Game " Quite a few of us have the de cluttering bug again. I thought it would be fun to keep a tally of how much we can remove from our homes and donate. It's not a competition but a great way to keep track of the numbers. I'm up to 33 items for the month.

* Darren picked a pink rose for my bedside table.

* I made potato cakes for lunch one day using about 2/3 of a cup of leftover mashed potato. Very yummy.