My Abundant Life: This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 9th July 2016

More decluttering has taken place in the Gower home this week. We are not hoarders as such but in less than four weeks we'll have to move everything from room to room to get our new carpet and bamboo flooring installed throughout our home The less we have to move the better. In saying that, I did buy a new toaster, kettle , vacuum cleaner and two dinner sets this week as well. Here's what else I got up to -

* Gratefully received a bottle of perfume from a family member. It was new but the family member didn't want it. I'm blessed that it was a fragrance I usually use.

* Dried the washing on clothes horses. I only needed to dry a couple of things in the dryer.

* Saved the kitchen water to use on pot plants outside. Saved the washing machine water as per usual.

* Cooked all meals from scratch using what I already had on hand ( eating down the pantry and freezer ). Darren and I were also invited to a friend's place for dinner. Thankfully the girls are old enough to cook for themselves.

* Cooked a big pot of chunky chicken and veg soup for a church lunch. I used two chicken carcasses from a catering job a couple of months ago that I'd frozen. The leftover soup from church was bought home and the girls had it for lunch.

* When I was shopping in IKEA, I bought home a couple of their free paper tape measures to use in card making.

* Refilled the shampoo and conditioner bottles in both showers and diluted them a little. I also emptied the little shamp / cond bottles you get from holidays into the big bottles. I'm hoping my girls won't notice.

* Refilled the foaming hand wash pumps around the house with diluted shower gel.

* Over the last few weeks I've given handmade soaps and decorated hand towels for a number of occasions. It's great to have these items on hand in my present cupboard.

* Made a batch of soap for our personal use. I still have plenty wrapped for presents.

* Decluttered my craft supplies. Some has been thrown out, some to donate to other crafters and the rest was organised into boxes for easy access.

* Cut up some store bought soap that had been in our bathroom cupboard for a couple of years. I then blitzed it the food processor and added it to the grated soap bucket the holds laundry soap for laundry powder making.

* Gratefully received three avocados from a friend's tree a couple of week's ago. One is now ripe enough to eat so I've taken it out of the pantry and placed it in the fridge. I'm suprised Darren hasn't noticed it in there.

* Closed off the ducted heating vents and doors for the girl's bedrooms when they were at work.

* We received our gas and electricity bills this week. I always read them carefully to make sure it looks correct. Thankfully I did because I noticed our Winter concession discount hadn't been applied to either bill. A saving of approx. $100.

* Picked silverbeet and lemons from our garden.