Friday, January 27, 2017

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 28th January 2017

My frugal list is quite small this week due to illness.  After recovering from gastro last week I caught Darren's cold this week ( sharing is caring ).  Combined with working three days this week plus organising food for an Australia Day bbq on Thursday, I'm suprised I had any strength left to do frugal things. Here is my oh so small list for the week-

*  Gratefully received three parcels in the mail from blog reader Eden.  In the parcels were some lovely greeting cards for me to repurpose in my card making.  Thankyou so much Eden.  Your thoughtfulness and kindness is appreciated.

*  Gratefully received lots of card stock from fellow Cheapskater friend Carol.  This lovely gift will certainly save me lots of money.

*  Gratefully received lots of egg cartons and a few glass jars from a friend.

*  Sold six dozen eggs to friends.

*  Made 9 1/2 jars of raspberry jam.  All this jam was made for free because I used raspberries and lemons from our garden and the sugar and jars were given to me.

*  Sold one school text book.

*  Made a batch of double strength Miracle Spray.  I dilute it when I fill up the spray bottles.

*  Did an extra cleaning job this week

*  Saved the shower warm up water for the washing machine.  Saved the washing rinse water for each next load of washing.

*  Washed the rubbish bins using recycled water.

*  Fed the compost bin with kitchen scraps.

*  Picked lettuce from the garden for a meal.   

Salad for a bbq lunch

Princess helping me sort my card making supplies

She loves to be a part of everything I'm doing.

Raspberries from our garden

Jam making

The final product

Free raspberry jam


What was on your fugal list this week ?

Friday, January 20, 2017

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 21st January 2017

Hi everyone.  We've had an eventful couple of week lately.  Two weeks ago Darren and I flew to Mooloolaba Queensland for a week long holiday.  The weather was just beautiful with daily temperatures ranging from 28 - 31 degrees Celsius.  The water temperature at the beach was 25 degrees - just perfect for swimming.  Our accommodation was three minutes walk away from the water's edge and two minutes from many cafes and restaurants facing the beach.

While we were in Mooloolaba we visited Australia Zoo where we saw all three of the Irwin family.  We even sat near Terri and Robert in the crowd.  Darren and I also went on an all day Fraser Island Adventure Tour.  We did lots of 4WD trekking in a purpose built bus,  drove along the beach, had a bbq lunch in the rain forest and  swam in the fresh water Lake McKenzie ( simply stunning ).

The same day we flew out,  our girls flew to Hamilton Island Queensland ( further up the coast ) with my brother,  sister in law and family.  They had an amazing time swimming,  kayaking,  snorkelling,  eating and driving a golf buggy.  Our cat Princess went on a holiday to the local pet resort where the workers love her.

This week we've spent time unpacking,  doing loads and loads of washing and tending to our garden and chickens.  It was back to work on Monday for three of us.  Tuesday I was baking and doing more washing.  Wednesday was spent in the garden pulling out bushes and pruning.

Unfortunately Thursday morning saw Jessica and myself  with gastro.  I spent the rest of the day sleeping and watching tv.  I was aching so much I felt like a little old granny every time I moved.  Darren came down with the gastro Friday morning.  By tea time he was up and about feeling a little better.  Megan is fine thankfully.

Here's what else we got up to over the last two weeks -

*  Washed and reused a few snap lock bags.

*  Collected lots of pumice stone from a fresh water creek on Fraser Island.  Now we won't need to buy any for years and years to come.

*  Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.

*  Saved the shower warm up water for the washing machine or pot plants.

*  Picked a couple of handfuls of raspberries and a few strawberries from the garden.

*  Kept the curtains closed on hot days and turned the cooling on low just before lunch.

*  Gratefully received a couple of fuel discount dockets in the mail.  Thankyou Tania.

*  Bought home the little shampoo,  conditioner and shower gel bottles from our holiday accommodation.

*  Darren emptied both compost bins into one of our veggie garden beds. 

*  Darren mowed all the garden clippings and added them to the compost bins.  The grass clippings went into the chicken run.  The chickens had fun scratching and pecking at the grass.

*  When we were in Mooloolaba we used our saved Flybuys dollars to buy all our groceries for the week.  We even had plenty of money left over.

*  We carried water bottles wherever we went on holidays.  This saved us approximately $60+ dollars for the week based on $3 a bottle and consuming three a day ( we probably consumed four between us ).  We also carried snacks with us on our outings.

*  Decluttered some of our clothes.  I took two big bags to Savers op shop and received two discount stamps.



 
Stunning Lake McKenzie.  It's a fresh water lake with extremely fine white sand.  The light colored water went up to my neck. Where the water darkens,  the depth increases significantly.





 On a rain forest walk on Fraser Island while our bus driver cooked our bbq lunch



 The purposed built 4WD bus for our Fraser Island tour.


The colored sands on Rainbow Beach

At Australia Zoo

Look what bloomed in our garden while we were away.

My garden work on Wednesday.  Yes I puled it all out.



   I'll post more photos of our holiday some time next week.

What did you do this week to save money ?

Friday, January 6, 2017

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 7th January 2017

Here is my frugal list for the week -

*  Glued the soles back on my moccasin slippers.  One sole was half off and the other was just starting to come off.  I'll be getting new moccasins before next Winter so I just want them to last until then.

*  Fed the compost bins with kitchen scraps.  Darren used his special pronged tool to turn the compost.

*  Fed the chickens some old lettuce,  cantelope seeds,  weeds,  snails and grass.

*  Used an old suitcase to store my Christmas nutcracker collection in.  Their usual cardboard storage boxes were getting a little shabby ( also taking up too much space ).  Darren was going to buy two plastic storage tubs until we realised we had old,  small suitcases in my shed that we'd outgrown years ago.   We saved ourselves about $14.

*  Lined my bathroom bin with lots of recycled bread bags.

*  Cleaned the dishwasher using bi carb and vinegar. Wiped down the seals and door with Miracle Spray.

*  Picked lettuce from our garden for a salad to feed eight people.

*  Picked our first ever apricots.  We also picked strawberries,  raspberries,  boysenberries and two peaches.  I made up a fruit salad to feed eight people.  About 1/3 of the fruit came from our garden.

*  Made up a bottle of diluted Dynamo laundry liquid.  I have to keep all available bottles diluted due to a certain daughter liking the full strength liquid.

*  Cleaned the inside of the kettle using citric acid.

*  Gratefully received lots of little pavers from my Dad.  We plan on using them around the strawberry patch and outside our garden shed.

'
From the garden

Ivory

Rose bush in the chicken coop.

Our girls

Lavender in bloom

Recycled pavers

How did you save time or money this week ?