This Week's Frugal Tasks

It's been an interesting and challenging week this week.  On Sunday we were all involved in a car accident on the way home from church.  We are all ok but Jessica hit her head when the other car hit us.  She had a headache for two days. I came down with a stress headache ( also for two days ) as we had to chase the car to get his number plate. That's all being resolved now.

On Wednesday I did an interview for tv.  I love doing tv stories but the interview part always makes me a little nervous.  I don't want to say something silly so now I try to write my answers down before filming.  This interview meant my house had to be "  tv ready " which is fine by me but I never know where they want to film.  So this means I can't hide things in bedrooms or the laundry.  I think Megan's room and my ensuite are the only rooms Australia hasn't seen..

So life is back to normal now and as I looked at my frugal list it was a little on the slim side. Infact,  it had nothing on it. Then I started to panic as I had nothing to share with my readers.  So I took the time to sit down and think over what I had done during the week.  Thankfully my list started to grow and I was spared embarrassment.  Here's this week's list -

* Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread.

*  Saved 12 bread bags from a charity bbq.  They will be used to scoop out the cat doo - doos in the kttty litter.

*  The girls ate freezer meals on Saturday night .  Darren and I were out at seperate functions.

*  Made peanut butter biscuits and cranberry hootycreek biscuits for the cookie jar.  I used cookie dough from the freezer.

*  Mended one dress and one pair of troussers.  Both needed the hems repaired.

*  Made two tote bags for Christmas presents.  I used material from the remnants bin at Spotlight and they cost me $2 each including lining.  I'll post a photo after Christmas.

*  Planted lettuce seedlings.

*  Darren made pita chips as we had run out - OH NO  !!!

*  Diluted the kitchen foaming hand wash.  This was one I bought recently on sale.  I bought it more for the pump than the liquid as I make my own.  I wanted a couple of spare pump bottles as I don't know how long they last and how long this trend will be around.

* Sold some eggs and jam to a cleaning client.  She also gave me some glass jars.

*  Received a lovely present in the mail from a friend.  She blessed me with lots of makeup to give to my girls as presents ( Thankyou A ).  Your gift came at a time when I was feeling  little low.

*  Picked silverbeet to go with two meals.

*  Gratefully accepted clothes and handbags from a friend for my girls to use.

*  I made two beaded angels to give to a friend for a birthday present.  They were well received and everyone at the restaurant table loved them.

*  Megan made a pavlova on Sunday for dessert.  After the rotten day we'd had,  it was lovely to have such a treat.  There were egg yolks left over from the pav so I made egg custard which everyone had for dessert for the next two nights.  Darren enjoyed licking the spoon and serving dish - a great honour in our home.

*  Saved water from the showers to water the vegetable seedlings we are growing.  I also saved water from the kitchen sink to water other garden plants.

*  Turned an almost empty shower gel bottle upside down into a refill bottle of made up foaming hand wash.  Nothing was wasted.

Megan's Pavlova

Ready to eat

Egg Custard

Yes,  we ate it with teaspoons.  It lasts longer.

Pita Chips

A constant snack in our house.

A beaded angel

The beaded angel collection - hehehe.

 What frugal things did you do this week ?

Lasagne

900 grams of beef mince
3 tins of diced / crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon each of onion flakes,  oregano and  basil.
1 teaspoon each of garlic granules
salt and pepper to taste
3 heaped tablespoons of tomato paste
1.25 litres of milk
3 tablespoons of butter
4 heaped tablespoons of plain flour
1 X 250 gram box of pasta sheets
2 – 3 cups of grated cheese
Canola spray

Cook the beef mince in a very large fry pan and season with oregano,  basil,  onion flakes,  salt and pepper. Add the tinned tomatoes and tomato paste and combine well.
In a large saucepan melt the butter on a low heat.  Add the flour and stir well.
Gradually whisk in a little of the milk until the flour mixture is combined.  Pour in the rest of the milk and whisk thoroughly.  Increase the heat and continue to stir with a spoon until the sauce  simmers and thickens. Be careful that the sauce doesn’t catch and burn on the bottom of the saucepan.

Grease a large lasagne dish with canola spray.
Spread a thin layer of white sauce over the bottom of the dish.  Place lasagne sheets over the white sauce,  breaking to size if needed.

Layer the meat sauce over the lasagne sheets.  Gently spoon the white sauce over the top until the meat sauce is covered.  Cover again with lasagne sheets.

Repeat this layering process two more times until the meat sauce runs out. 
Top with lasagne sheets and pour the remaining white sauce over the top,
Top with the grated cheese.
Cook in the oven at 190 degrees celcius for one hour turning the dish around half way.

Serves 12 people with vegetables on the side.

NOTES -

*     Fresh onions and garlic can be used instead of the dried version.
*       Freeze leftovers into single portions.
*      Vegetables can be added.  I’ve added finely chopped silver beet,  grated carrot and zucchini.
*       Powdered milk can be used and is cheaper.
*      My lasagne dish measures 35cm long x 21cm wide x 8 cm deep ( internal measurements )  Any square or oblong baking dish will do as long as it has deep sides.

A meal of lasagne and vegetables

 

Lining up all the components to reduce the drips and spills.

Ready for the oven

The finished product.

*  This dish costs about $10 to make

This Week's Frugal Tasks

This week I've been busy doing odd jobs around the house.  I had three days in a row at home so I made sure I was wise with my time. 

Here's my frugal list for the week -


*  Received three more avocados from a friend at church.

*  Cut up three old socks for garden ties.

*  Mended one shopping bag,  one cardigan,  one dress and took up one of Megan's Summer dresses.  She's grown so much that her white maxi dress was too short to look like a maxi dress.  So I took it up above her knees. She's happy now and will get another year's wear out of it.

*  Sewed four new Christmas stockngs.  I bought the material from Spotlight after Christmas last year for $1 a stocking.  We needed slightly smaller stockings this year to reflect our smaller budget.

*  Made two chocolate cakes at the same time ( doubled the recipe ).  One was for a church morning tea,  the other one was for us.

*  Froze a single serve of leftover tuna casserole.  I'll have to write freezer meals onto the menu plan soon as they are piling up.

*  Cooked enough rice for two tuna casseroles.  One was used that night and the other portion of rice was frozen for a future tuna casserole.

*  Made double strength Miracle Spray.  I dilute it back down to normal strength when I pour it into spray bottles.  By making it this way I'm saving time.

*  Megan made a big pot of vegetable soup.  She'd come home from an overnight camp on the school grounds.  They roughed it and she was in need of real food.  The rest of the soup was frozen into single portions.

*  Megan and her friend made raspberry and white chocolate muffins and plain scones on Sunday.  We all enjoyed some for afternoon tea using my Grandma's fine china cups and saucers.  The rest of the muffins and scones were frozen for lunchboxes.

*  Planted out some lettuce seedlings.  We had to buy these as our own seedlings are too small and we'd be without lettuce for eight weks waiting for them to grow big enough.  Still,  it's cheaper than buying a lettuce each week.

*  Saved water from the showers for the garden and washing machine.  Also saved the washing machine water for the next load.

*  Refilled the shampoo and conditioner bottles and diluted them.

*  Finally finished a lipstick I thought was really empty about four weeks ago.  I've been digging out the remains with cotton sticks for about 6 - 8 weeks.  Now I've started " finishing " another lipstick.  It's amazing how much more you can get from them once it reaches the plastic part.

*  Darren picked some iceberg roses for the kitchen windowsill.

*  I've been busy filling up my pantry so that I don't have to do much shopping during the Summer heat.

My favourite cup and saucer set.  It was my Grandma's.

A delightful Sunday afternoon tea.

The pantry is chock a block.

A big pot of vegetable soup.

The roses Darren picked.

Please share your frugal list.

Chocolate Brownies

Here's my favourite brownie recipe. It's very easy and you can add chopped walnuts,  peanuts,  cashews or dried fruit for extra flavour.

1/2 a cup of butter ( 125g ) - melted
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
3/4 cup s/r flour
1/3 cup of cocoa powder

1/2 cup of choc bits

1/2 cup of chopped nuts of dried fruit

Mix butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs with a spoon.
Add the flour and cocoa. Add chopped nuts / dried fruit if desired
Pour the mixture into a greased and lined square cake tin

Bake at 180c for 30 – 35 minutes or until edges are firm and the centre doesn't wobble - check with a skewer.

Remove from the tin when cold and cut into squares with a sharp knife.

NOTES -

*  Make sure the lining goes up the sides for easy removal when baked.

*  I quite often make a double batch. I add some nuts to half the mixture and the other half is left plain.  Both batches have the choc bits.

*  The brownies freeze well

*  Store in an airtight container for 3 - 4 days

 

My Menu Plan 20th Oct - 19th Nov 2014

The time has come to write my menu plan again.  I'm glad I do a monthly one as I can write it up in half an hour then I don't need to think about it for another month.  With the weather getting slightly warmer I'm adding a few salads to my menu plan as a gradual transition into Summer.   Some people love salads as soon as the sun shines.  My family doesn'r mind them,  just not too often

Here's my menu plan -

Mon 20th Oct - Salad ,  fish portions and baked potatoes.
Tues 21st - Honey mustard chicken and rice.
Wed 22nd - Meat pie and greens
Thurs 23rd - Salmon patties,  rice and zuc slice
Fri 24th - Freezer meals.
Sat 25th - Chicken curry in slow cooker with rice.
Sun 26th - Get your own but feed me

Mon 27th - Meatloaf, mash and veg
Tues 28th - Sausages,  salad and bread stick
Wed 29th - Lasagne and salad
Thurs 30th - Salmon portions,  salad and baked potatoes
Fri 31st - Chicken schnitzels,  mash and veg
Sat 1st Nov - Chop suey and rice
Sun 2nd -Get your own but feed me

Mon 3rd - Spag bol
Tues 4th - Crumbed chicken drumsticks,  mash and greens
Wed 5th -  Roast beef in slow coker with roast veg
Thurs 6th - Tuna pasta bake
Fri 7th - Bits and pieces of meat and veg
Sat 8th - Freezer meals
Sun 9th - Get your own but feed me

Mon 10th  Meatloaf,  salad and pasta salad
Tues 11th - Sliced meat,  smashed potatoes,  pasta salad and mixed lettuce
Wed 12th - Roast chicken with roast veg
Thurs 13th - Tuna casserole and greens
Fri 14th - Hamburgers and wedges
Sat 15th - Nasi Goreng
Sun 16th - Get your own but feed me

Mon 17th - Saucy chicken drumsticks,  mash and veg
Tues 18th - Sausages and salad
Wed 19th - Silverside in slow cooker with roast veg

NOTES -

*  Potatoes have doubled in price recently so we are having rice a little more often.
*  The bits an ieces meat is jst that.  I have small packages of leftover lamb,  beef and tow ( uncooked chops.  Everyone can pick their own.
*  For those who are new to my blog,  Sundays are when Darren and the girls cook their own dinner and prepare something for me.  It's a great chance for them to practice and expand their cooking skills ( and give me a night off ).
*  Salads are nothing grand.  Just lettuce,  tomato,  cuccumber, cheese,  eggs and beetroot if we have it.  It also depends on the prices of the salad ingredients.
*  All foods are cooked from scratch.  The only prepackaged food is the fish portions..

Tuna casserole with corn flakes on top

Lasagne big enough for three meals for the family.

Homemade hamburgers and wedges

Roast beef and veg

Meat pie  yummy !!!

This Week's Frugal Tasks

I've been very busy organising presents this week.  We've celebrated a couple of birthdays amoungst family and friends and it was great to have the presents wrapped and ready to give.  As a child I was so excited to receive presents for Christmas and my birthday.  Now as an adult the role has reversed and I love to be the giver.  I think it's all the planning,  the budgeting,  the shopping,  the making and the wrapping that builds up the excitement.

Here's my frugal list for the week -


*  Made Cranberry Hootycreek biscuits to give as part of a present.

*  Made 20 pumpkin scones using Jap pumpkin I bought for 69 cents a kilo.

* Cooked,  drained and froze more pumpkin for future baking.

*  Gave a couple of jars of homemade plum jam as presents.

*  Saved the shower water to water the garden plants.

*  Accepted some glass jars from my Mum and Dad.  I can't wait until our fruit trees and bushes start producing. I'll be in jam heaven.

*  Gratefully accepted 8 avocados from a friend at church.  These are such a blessing to us as they are a luxury item for my family.  Darren and Jessica are rationing them out and enjoying every mouthful.

*  Darren saved $50 on my car insurance by checkng other company's prices.  I'd been with the same company since 2008 as they had the best price each year.  Now we've found a cheaper deal elsewhere.

*  Wrapped most of the Christmas presents.  I buy all year round as I see great bargains.  I've even made a great start on next year's birthday and Christmas presents.  I've also beaten my present budget YAY  !!!

*  Baked two trays of peanut butter choc chip biscuits while I had a choc self saucing pudding in the oven.

*  Gratefully accepted spinach leaves and mixed lettuce from another friend at church.  Jessica used some to make up a lovely salad for tea the other night.

*  Bought Cadbury choc bits on sale at $2.09 from Coles.  I used our flybuys money to pay for them ( so they were free ).

*  Bought Vita Brits at half price from Woolworths for $2.29.  They are cheaper than the Aldi brand which is the cheapest on the market.  I bought 5 boxes.

*  On Thursday night Darren,  Jessica and I had a meal that cost us about 10 cents for the three of us.  I'd cooked half a piece of silverside the night before.  There was about 6 slices left over as some of us weren't very hungry.  Megan was on an overnight camp the next night so we had the silverside with corn on the cob from our garden last year and silverbeet ( also picked from our garden ).  A friend gave us a couple of jars of tomato relish so we had some of that.  The only cost was 1/2 a cup of white rice.  BONUS  !!!

*  Sold two dozen eggs and two dozen muffins to neighbour and a cleaning client.

Pumpkin scones - my favourite morning tea.

A gift of avocados

Wrapped Christmas presents.

Biscuits for my sister

More flowers in my garden.

Biscuits wrapped for a male.

 

What frugal tasks did you complete this week ?

What Makes You Happy ? October 2014

Just the other night Jessica came in to kiss me goodnight as she usually does.  We started talking about what makes us happy.  Earlier that day I'd wrapped more Christmas presents and was feeling very happy about being so organised this year.  Jessica said that ( raw ) carrots and bubble wrap make her happy and she'd like them in her Christmas stocking.  We had a good laugh over that and continued talking about other things that make us happy.  There are so many things that make my family happy.  Nothing big or expensive.  Mostly it's the simple things that brings a smile to our face.

As I was at work today I kept thinking about this topic.  Then it came to me.  I should start a new post for all of you to share the things that make you happy too.  We live in a world that likes to dwell on the negative.  I prefer to have a postive outlook on life.  So once a month I'll put up a new post that gives you all the opportunity to share your happiness.

I'm putting the challenge out there for anyone who reads my blog to take the time to post three things that make you happy.  Please keep in mind that this will be a regular post so don't list everything in one go.   Keep us coming back for more  !!!!

Three things that make me happy -

*  My miniture tea set / tea pot collection.  I've been fascinated with small tea sets since I was about 6 or 7. I bought my first small tea set when I was eight.  Then I started collecting them about five years ago  Every time I look at them I feel so happy inside.  When visitors come they like to look at them too.  They bring a smile to everyone's face and that makes me happy all over again.

*  Darren pickng some flowers from the garden for me.  At the moment I have iceberg roses on my bedside table.

*  Cuddles and kisses from my girls.  They are 17 and 14 and I know I'm blessed to have that affection from them.

Part of my tea set collection

More tea sets 

Roses Darren picked.

 What three things make you happy ?