Grocery Specials Wednesday 18th March 2015

Time to post the weekly grocery specials.   The ones I've listed below are products I regularly buy to keep my food budget under $300 per month.  These are the best prices possible. Of course there are any more specials advertised.  Here is the pick of the crop-

 Coles specials -

*  Palmolive shower gel 500 ml 1/2 price at $2.99.  Well worth stocking up at this price.  I add them to presents and always put a bottle in my girls Christmas stocking.

*  Norsca deodorant 150 grams 1/2 rice at $2.99.

*  Lindt blocks of chocolate 100 grams 1/2 price at $2


Woolworths specials -

*  Vita Brits 1/2 price at $2.29 for a 1 kilo box

*  Continental Cuppa Soups 1/2 price at $1 per box of two serves.

* 20% off all chocolate Easter Bunnies.  Never pay full price for Easter eggs etc.  They always come on sale the week or two before Easter.

*  40% off all Nivea products.

*  Morning Fresh dish washing Liquid 1/2 price at $1.97 for 400 ml.  This is a great price.  Clear the shelf if you'd like.  You know I do.

Hamburgers At Home

The cheapest takeaway meal I can make is homemade hamburgers and wedges. I make the hamburger patties in bulk and freeze them into lots of four for future quick meals. The rolls are made ahead of time using my wholemeal bread recipe and frozen as well. In Summer we grow our own lettuce and tomatoes so this reduces the cost as well. Here are the ingredients and costs for the most delicious hamburgers.

Patties - Start off with one kilo of regular beef mince ( $5 per kg )
seasonings of pepper, garlic, seasoned bread crumbs ( homemade ), tomato sauce, soy sauce , onion, parsley. I use dried onion and herbs.  The seasonings cost about 5 cents per patty  I use a good shake or squirt of everything and combine it well with my electric mixer.
Use your electric scales to weigh out 80 grams per patty.  The cost per patty with the seasonings is approx 45 cents.


Bread rolls cost 10 cents each to make .

Cheese, lettuce and tomato ( if you grow your own ) the cost is approx 10 cents for the cheese. If you need to buy all these allow about 30 cents.

Tomato sauce or mayo about 5 cents

Homemade wedges - potatoes cost about $2.99 for five kilos.  I use my Nicer Dicer to cut the potatoes into wedges.  I spray them lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with Season All.  Cook for about an hour at 200 degrees Celsius.  For a single serve of wedges with seasoning the cost would be 20 cents.

Total cost for a single hamburger and serve of wedges is $0.90.

If rolls and patties are made and frozen ahead of time, it takes about 15 minutes to make the hamburgers.  Occasionally Darren adds an egg to his hamburger. We have chickens to supply us with eggs so it doesn't cost us anything to add an egg. This meal is filling, , far more filling than what you can buy at the shops.

Next time you have a craving for takeaway, have a go at making your own. It's healthier, cheaper, tastier and far more satisfying to make it yourself.

Homemade hamburger and chips

Homemade wholemeal rolls.

Hamburger and wedges 

This Week's Frugal Tasks 14th March 2015

I've had a very productive week  with lots of great specials bought to fill my cupboards,  baking and cooking completed as well as being wise with what we have.  Here's what I got up to this week -


*  Gratefully received some glass jars from my friend Leesa.  Thank you so much.  Those salsa jars are the perfect size for my relish and the lids are apple green in color ( my fav ).

*  Gratefully received some sandwiches, and egg and bacon muffins

*  Mended lots of socks.  They had holes in the toe area so they were worth mending. 

*  Spent some time making birthday cards.  I only have a few stamps and ink pads from many years ago.  As card making can be an expensive hobby I've taken my lead from Annabel  at The Bluebirds Are Nesting blog.  She makes beautiful cards using pictures from magazines.  Here's a link to her blog. athttp://thebluebirdsarenesting.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/feather-your-nest-friday-6th-march-2015.html

*  Cut up three old socks to use as garden ties.

*  Froze three single portions of leftover chicken curry.  These will be written into the menu plan as a free meal.

*  Picked a handful of raspberries each day and froze them.

*  Dried the washing on the line for free.  It looks like I've reduced my washing to 5 loads a week without compromising on cleanliness.

*  Saved the shower warm up water.  Some was poured into the washing machine and the rest was used to water my mango plants.  They are looking quite healthy.

*  Made up a batch of dried seasoned bread crumbs.

*  Darren bought two litres of chocolate flavoured milk for 50 cents.  It had one day left on it's use by.  We don't normally by flavoured milk but this bargain was too good to refuse.  Darren and the girls had a couple of glasses each to drink that day.  Megan used the rest to make icypoles.

*  Bought 10 kilos of chicken drumsticks at $1.98 kilo.  Darren and I divided them up into 15 meal portions ( 4 drumsticks ) and froze them.  We also have rain checks for another 15 kilos which we'll redeem throughout the next twelves months when we need them.

*  Made two chocolate cakes at the same time.  One is for us and the other is for morning tea at church on Sunday.

*  Bought the supermarket bargains listed here Grocery Specials.

*  Found three cushion inserts at Savers op shop for $2.99 each.  A few cushions on our family room couch and Megan's bed were looking a bit flat.  Spotlight sells the inserts for about $10 - $15 for the size I needed.  I'd been waiting for a sale but Spotlight doesn't seem to reduce them often.  I'd never even thought of looking at Savers,  but there they were. Three near new ones just waiting for me.

*  Cut and whizzed  a few bars of soap in the food processor   I added this to my bucket of powdered soap that I use to make laundry powder.

*  Picked a bunch of roses from the bush in the chicken coop.

Cutting a bar of soap before whizzing it in the processor.

First attempt at card making.

Flat cushions and new inserts.

Cushions with a new lease of life.

Much better looking cushions.

Megan's bed with rejuvenated cushions 

Roses from the garden.

Chocolate cakes.

Dried bread crumbs.

What frugal things did you complete this week ?

Grocery Specials Wednesday 11th March 2015

As most of you know,  I LOVE A BARGAIN.  Buying almost everything on special helps me to feed my family and live an amazing life on a budget. I check all the supermarket catalogues each week to get the best deals on regular items I buy.

Each week I'll post the bargains I find so you too can save lots of money.  Please feel free to share the specials you find.  They must be food or food related,  toiletries or cleaning products etc at a really good price.  In other words, anything you can find in the supermarket.  If you live outside of Australia,  please share your bargains too and state what country / state you live in.

Here's this week's specials -

*   Cadbury Baking Chips and Melts $2.09  for 230 gram bag in Coles supermarkets on sale until 17 / 03 / 15.  This is the best price possible and well worth stocking up.  It only comes down to this price once or twice a year.

*  TRESemme Shampoo and Conditioner 750 - 900 mls 1/2 price at $5.24.at Coles supermarkets on sale until 17 / 03 / 15

*  Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner 350 mls 1/2 price at $3.90 at Woolworths supermarkets on sale until 17 / 03 / 15

*  Chicken drumsticks $1.99 a kilo at Woolworths supermarkets in the deli.  On sale until 17 / 03 / 15.  It might be hard to get stock so please go to the service desk and ask for a rain check. Woolworths rain checks are valid for twelve months.

Honey Mustard Chicken

Honey mustard chicken must be one of my favourite dishes.  I'll confess,  I used to buy the sauce in a jar.  I thought I liked it until I started making my own sauce.  Now I couldn't go back to the mass produced sugar and salt laden variety.  My recipe is very easy to make and is tasty.  My daughter Jessica isn't overly keen on cooking but she does a fabulous job of making this without me watching her.  The first time she made it she took a photo,  posted it on social media and her friends couldn't believe it could be made at home from scratch.  In other words,  they too have only known of the store bought variety.  Jessica was very proud of herself.

When I first wanted to make this from scratch I googled lots of recipes.  As usual the recipes didn't have vegetables included or they used way too much cream and sour cream.  So I made up my own recipe and tweaked it a few times until I got the balance of flavours right.  Here's my recipe -


2 small chicken breasts, diced and cooked
2/3 cup of cream
 2 - 3 tablespoons of honey
1 heaped dessert spoon of Dijon mustard
1 heaped dessert spoon of whole grain mustard
onion flakes, salt, pepper, chives, garlic powder / granules etc to taste.
1 cup of beans, cooked
1 large sliced carrot, cooked

Mix cream, honey, mustards and seasoning in a medium fry pan and heat.
Add cooked diced chicken, cooked sliced carrot and beans.
Mix well and serve with rice.

This serves four people.

Silver beet or spinach can be shredded finely and added to the sauce and meat as it's heating up..

This Week's Frugal Tasks 7th March 2015

*  Picked lots of raspberries and yellow pear tomatoes each day.

*  Gratefully received lots of sandwiches from a catering job I helped with.

*  Bought some amazing bargains at my local fruit and veg shop.   I bought three mangoes for $1,  seven bananas for $1,  half a cantelope for $1, apples for $1.99 and two bags of five kilos of potatoes for $5 and a cuccumber for 90 cents.

*  Collected a few eggs here and there.  Most of our chooks are molting in some shape or form so they are not laying as often.

*  Dried the washing on the line and clothes horses.

*  Used lots of bread bags as bin liners.

*  Froze some leftovers from 2 dinners.  We also ate frozen meals last Saturday as I'd been to a high tea and didn't feel like cooking or eating much.

*  Made 7 jars of raspberry jam with our home grown raspberries.

*  Gratefully received lots of bread from a friend and some scones from another friend.

*  Filled the car up with petrol at $1.12 per litre just before the latest price increase.

*  Darren emptied our compost bin onto a veggie garden bed.  In a few weeks we'll plant some veggie seedlings I've grown from seed.

*  Saved the washing machine water for the next load.  We also saved the shower warm up water and used it to water the veggie seedlings.  I saved the kitchen sink water from washing hands to rinse out the sinks when they were dirty.

*  Made a double batch of Chocolate Lunchbox Muffins.  I didn't have the room in the freezer to make a triple batch.

*  Made a huge batch of salmon patties using 5 tins of salmon.  This was enough for 6 meals for the four of us plus a few spares. I frozen most of them for future meals.  Making salmon patties can be messy with all the crumbing etc so when I make them I REALLY MAKE THEM  !!!

Home made raspberry jam.

The berries I'd been picking and saving.

My bargain fruit haul.

Some photos from the baby shower I helped cater for and serve at.  Below is a nappy cake made by a good friend of mine and fellow Cheapskate member Keren.  Her business is called All Things Baby and Beyond.  Her face book page link is https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005691076624#!/allthingsbabyandbeyond?pnref=lhc  She has more cute photos of nappy cakes. Well worth a look.

The cupcake had little rattles,  dummies and elephants on them.  No,  I didn't make them.

Lots and lots of food  !!


What did you do this week to save time,  money and energy ?

Muesli Bar Slice

I found this recipe on the internet just before the GST was introduced. Mums all over Australia were trying to find ways to cut costs. I guess nothing has changed !!  Of course I tweaked the recipe to suit our own tastes and budget

1 cup of rolled oats / rice bubbles / corn flakes - it doesn't matter as long as there are some rolled oats in the mix and it equals 1 cup ( I mix it up )
1 cup sultanas, apricots, cranberries or other dried fruit
1/2 cup Whole meal or white Self raising flour
1/2 cup of raw sugar
1/2 cup of coconut
125g of butter
2 tablespoons of honey

Place butter, honey and sugar into a saucepan and melt until the sugar has dissolved
Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl
Add butter mixture to dry ingredients and mix until sticky
Press evenly into a greased slice tin. Use a potato masher to flatten out
Bake @ 180c for 20 - 25 minutes until golden
Cut into bars / squares when cold

Keeps for 5 - 6 days in airtight container

The finished product.

Squishing it down with the potato masher.

Ready for baking.