My Menu Plan Friday 20th February - Friday 20th March 2015

Here is my latest menu plan.  It looks like we won't be getting too much hot weather in the next few weeks so I've changed some of the meals accordingly.  I've introduced some cooler weather meals as we transition into Autumn.  Of course,  my menu plan is not set in stone.  I'm sure outing will crop up and there might be days when we don't feel like eating the meal on the plan.  That ok.  We have plenty of food in the house so we won't starve.

Fri 20th - Homemade hamburgers and wedges
Sat 21st - Salad and fish cooked in foil

Sun 22nd - Get your own but feed me
Mon 23rd - Salad and crumbed fish portions and smashed potatoes
Tues 24th - Roast chicken ( on BBQ ) with potato / pumpkin mash and veggies
Wed 25th - Homemade hamburgers - we were given rolls that couldn't be frozen.
Thurs 26th - Tuna pasta bake and greens
Fri 27th - KFC chicken drumsticks and salad
Sat 28th - Freezer meals

Sun 1st March  Get your own but feed me
Mon 2nd - Tacos and a dessert of some description
Tues 3rd - Leg of lamb and roast veggies
Wed 4th - Shepherds pie with leftover lamb
Thurs 5th - Fish potions,  rice,  zuc slice and veggies
Fri 6th - Salad and chicken strips
Sat 7th - Chops and salad ( or veggies )

Sun 8th -  Homemade pizza
Mon 9th - Rissoles,  salad and baked potatoes
Tues 10th - Chicken curry in slow cooker with rice
Wed 11th - Homemade meat pie with veggies
Thurs 12th - Fish cooked in foil with mash and veggies
Fri 13th - Chicken hamburgers with wedges
Sat 14th - Honey mustard chicken with rice

Sun 15th - Toasted sandwiches
Mon 16th - Spag bol
Tues 17th - Beef stew in slow cooker with mash
Wed 18th - Roast chicken with roast veggies
Thurs 19th - Salmon patties with baked potatoes and salad
Fri 20th - Freezer meals

A roast meal

Chicken curry in the slow cooker

Homemade meat pie

Honey mustard chicken made from scratch.

5 Easy Ways To Cut Your Grocery Bill.

Have you ever wondered why your grocery bill gets bigger and bigger each time you shop ? Yes, it could be your kids are eating more.  Yes,  prices do increase on a regular basis and it feels like you are in a never ending battle to keep your food costs under control.

Back in 2010 after Darren and I had paid off our mortgage,  I let my grocery spending slip a little.  Oh,  no  !!!  Wendy out of control in the supermarket,  that's unheard of.  Yes,  it happened.  I was just so glad to be debt free that I wanted to live a little.  Our family's food bill was climbing to well over $450 a month.  In fact,  I wasn't really tracking my spending.

In July 2010 I joined The Cheapskates Club and posted a thread on their forum titled "  Food Shopping Made Me Smile ".  This post described how I'd set myself a new goal of reducing my food budget to $300 for the month to feed my family of four.  So many members asked lots of questions and the $300 a month food challenge was born.  We now have participants from all over Australia joining in the challenge.

In 2014,  my husband gave up his full time paying job to be available to God's work.  Our budget had to be slashed in all areas as we waited on God for provision.  The food budget was reduced to $270 a month and we comfortably stuck to the new budget for  11 months.

I have a little secret to reveal.  For the last 2 months,  my new food budget has been $250 a month.  My family doesn't know ( they will now ) and they haven't noticed a difference.  We are still eating very well and there is plenty of food in the house.


Here are 5 of the tricks I use to keep my food budget so low -

*  Shop with a shopping list.  It sounds obvious but I'm astounded at the amount of people I see in the supermarket with no list in hand,  throwing whatever into the trolley.  A shopping list should have the exact product needed and the quantity.

*  Shop at home first.  As you are writing your shopping list,  check your pantry,  fridge and freezer to see what you already have on hand.  Make it a game to see how many items you can cross off your list.

*  Use unit pricing to your advantage.  Unit pricing  became mandatory in Australian supermarkets back in Dec 2009.  I was jumping for joy.  No need to bring a calculator with me. No more guessing the best deal.  Unit pricing is a great way to find the cheapest price per unit of each product.

*  Do not be brand loyal if you want to cut your spending.  Flour is flour,  sugar is sugar and they all do the same job.  If you can't make ends meet and can't pay all your bills on time,  branded products in your pantry will not give you peace of mind or make you happy.

*  Cut out the junk food.  This includes ready made,  microwave,  pre cut,  individual serves,  pre cooked,  ready to go,  snack size,  bite size, instant and freezer foods.  Generally they are processed and contain colorings,  preservatives and artificial flavourings.  These foods are also over priced for what you are getting.  Maybe save them as an occasional treat.

This Week's Frugal Tasks 21st February 2015

I've had a very busy week this week with a big cleaning job on every day ( my paid work ).  This led to many, many hours on the road travelling to and from my girl's school as well as the cleaning jobs.   I've had to be super organised with easier meals and the family pitching in to help keep our home tidy.  Here's what I managed to get done -


*  Kept the curtains closed on the warm days.

*   Picked raspberries,  beans,  tomatoes,  corn and silverbeet from the garden.

*  Gratefully accepted some sausages left over from a charity bbq.  I've frozen them and they will be made into sausage casserole at a later date.

*  Darren bought home more bread bags from the charity BBQ.  I've decrumbed them,  dried them out and stored them for future use as bin liners and for storing food.

*  Supermarket specials I bought this week were - Shapes biscuits for $1.47 a box ( IGA ),  Grapes for $2 a kilo,  Fountain tomato sauce for $1.19,  Palmolive shower gel 500 mls for $3.  The shower gel has been put away as Christmas stocking fillers for my girls.

*  Dried all the washing on the line and clothes horses.  I can't remember the last time I used the dryer.

*  Made muesli bar slice for school lunch boxes and morning teas.  It doesn't last long in my house as we all love to eat it.

*  Made a triple batch of Anzac biscuit dough for the freezer.  I baked some biscuits as well.

*  Saved all water from the washing machine for the next load.

*  Saved the shower warm up water to water my mango plants and other fruit trees.

*  Refilled and diluted the shampoo and conditioner bottles in my girl's bathroom.

*  Made all meals and snacks from scratch.

*  We had a Valentine's Day dinner at home.  Jessica picked a bunch of flowers from the garden for our dining table.

Valentine's Day flowers from the garden.

Muesli bars slice

Raspberries from our garden.

What frugal tasks did you do this week ?

What Makes You Happy ? February 2015

It's time to reveal another three things that bring joy to your life.  For me it's not the latest phone,  fashion trend or expensive overseas holiday. I find pure joy in the simple things in life.  Here's my three things for February -


*  Picking produce from my garden.  I just love to spend time in my garden,  pulling a weed here and there and picking the lovely fruits and vegetables to feed my family.  This also makes me feel rich as it costs very little to grow our own.

My garden haul on Wednesday 11th Feb.

*  Having a lovely cup of tea with some home baking.  I'm not into the fancy teas that are the latest trend.  Give me a good strong cup of normal / English breakfast tea with a little sugar and milk and I'm happy.  A homemade muffin,  scone or biscuit finishes off a relaxing morning tea for me every day.

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Biscuits

A good cup of tea in my Grandma's cup and saucer,

*  Having a stockpile of good wholesome food in my pantry,  fridge and freezers.  I feel happy knowing that I can afford to buy ingredients to cook and bake for my family.  I'm happy and content knowing that if the supermarkets closed unexpectedly or weather or illness prevented me from grocery shopping,  I could provide many, many meals and not have to worry.

A monthly grocery shop.

What three things make you happy ?

Raspberry And White Chocolate Muffins

I just love a good homemade muffin and these raspberry and white chocolate ones are divine.  The raspberries add tang which balances out the white chocolate.  They look pretty too.

6 cups of self-raising flour

2 cups of white sugar

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups of milk

250 grams of melted butter

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

200 – 250 grams of white choc bits

400 grams of frozen raspberries

Mix the flour and sugar together.

Melt the butter and add all other ingredients except the raspberries.

Place muffin / patty cases into the muffin tins.

Add the frozen raspberries and gently stir in until just combined.

Spoon mixture into muffin / patty cases until 2/3 full.

Bake at 200 degrees celcius for 20 -25 minutes until just golden on top.

Makes approx.. 24 large muffins.

Muffins can be frozen.

 

This Week's Frugal Tasks 14th February 2015

Lots of different tasks filled my days this week. Next week I'm working every day so I tried to get ahead and extra organised around the house..  Here's what I got up to -


*  Baked lots of peanut butter choc chip biscuits using homemade dough from the freezer.

*  Portioned out $20 worth of chicken fillets into seven meals and froze in snap lock bags.

*  Refilled the dish washing liquid and diluted it by about 30%.

*  Made lots of small rissoles and flash froze them raw on oven trays.  They were then portioned into meal sizes and put back into the freezer.  The will be great for quick and easy meals especially on hot days with a salad.

*  Collected kitchen water and poured it onto our fruit trees.

*  Bought two as new recipe books from Savers for $3.99 each less 15% discount.  One was a muffin book and the other was a biscuit book.  They have been put away for Christmas presents.  I picked up a lovely cushion for a bed for $2.55.  It looks new and has been put away for a birthday present.  I also bought an assorted bag of cotton reels and ribbon for $ 2.55.  The cotton will be used for sewing and is worth at least $18. 

*  Gratefully received some salad, bread,  croissants and nectarines.

*  Used some old Christmas cards to make 38 gift tags for future Christmases.

*  Altered a dress for myself and one for Jessica.

*  Hand washed the dinner dishes a few times this week.  There wasn't enough to put the dish washer on,  We usually only use the dish washer for afternoon tea and  dinner dishes together.

*  Gratefully received a large amount of vegetable seeds from an online friend who cannot plant them.  There are enough seeds for the next year or two of everything we usually grow.  This is a huge blessing for our family and were are so thankful.  Thank you so much Jenny.  xoxo

*  Picked corn,  beans, tomatoes, raspberries and one lemon this week.

*  Baked a double batch of chocolate choc chip muffins.

*  Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread.

*  Darren rigged up an old beach umbrella to shade our raspberry plants.  The fruit was getting bleached by the hot sun.

*  Saved the washing machine rinse water for the next load.  Saved the shower warm up water for some plants.

Our raspberries have shade

Veggie seedlings we'll plant in a week or two.

My Savers bargain.  $2.99 less 15% discount.

I picked this in one day.

What did you do this week that was frugal ?

Cleaning Your Kettle

How clean is the inside of your kettle ?  Does it look a little on the brown side ?  I was doing some cleaning at my girl's school the other day and as I finished cleaning the tea and coffee area,  I thought I'd look inside the kettle.  Yep,  it was brown.  When I arrived home I thought it was time to give my kettle a clean too.  I hadn't cleaned it for a couple of months.  Shock,  horror,  something dirty at my place !!!  I deliberately let to get really dirty to show you how quick and easy it is to have a sparkly new looking kettle.

All you need is a kettle full of cold water.  To this you add and a couple of teaspoons of Citric Acid.

Boil the kettle then pour the water down the sink.  Alternatively,  save the water. let it cool and pour it into the washing machine or water some plants.

Fill up the kettle again with fresh water and boil it.  Pour this water out ( and save it ).

Now the kettle is ready for use.

Here are my before and after photos.
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