Savings Sunday 15/11/20

This week was a challenge. On Monday through untill Thursday I suffered with  cluster headaches, ibufrofen and napping helped but when I was awake I felt very vague. My 14 year old was home sick all week due to tonsillitis which was resistant to the first lot of antibiotics. This resulted in a very painful throat and having to get a blood test and throat swabs. It is now day 3 on a different course of antibiotics and finally there is some improvement. 

I managed to get some jobs around the house. I painted some baskets I have white. These will be used in the kitchen benches for extra storage and I cleaned out the cutlery drawers. A while ago I picked up a small cupboard for free on Marketplace, it was used outside to hold shoes so was quite dirty and some of the MDF trims ate a bit warped. I finally got around to putting some adhesive vinyl on it, this was $3 a roll from Kmart and it used 1.5 rolls. I also sprayed the handles with black paint. The cupboard is now used to store extra tons and packet food. 

I baked a tray brownies for dessert which got eaten before I took a picture and cooked ravioli soup and a curry in the slowcooker. Both were enough for a couple of nights dinner which saved me cooking. 

Hubby caught up with some friends on Friday night, I stayed home to keep an eye on our youngest. He came home with a bag of goodies, the puddings will be kept for Christmas. We are blessed to have such great friends! 

We did a small shop at the Foodbank and got some meat, including a ham which has been frozen and chocolates which have been put away for Christmas. I also bought a final gift of Netflix gift cards and am finished my Christmas shopping. I just have 2 more gifts to wrap. 

Savings Sunday 8/11/20

This week was productive! I got some sorting, gardening, sewing and cooking done. We went to a free community garage sale and hubby and I got a pair of shoes each. The teenager picked out some jumpers. 

I did some weeding in the front garden and back gardens and hubby worked on the pool which is now ready for swimming. There is still more work to do in the garden, but this is a start! The weather was lovely and we had our first BBQ for the season and ate dinner outside. 

I cleaned out the fridges and baked a large tray of onion, capsicum, pumpkin and zucchini which were on the soft side and used to make a large vegetable lasagna. 

I also baked a batch of custard biscuits and some banana muffins. One got eaten before I took a picture! 

I tidied my craft and fabric boxes and found some unfinished projects which I'll work on over the next few weeks. I made 3 patchwork Christmas stockings using fabric scraps and also made a table runner. This was my first attempt at patchwork and think they turned out well. 

Every few days there was about a dozen or so blueberries ready so these were picked. So yummy. We did our Sunday pickup and got heaps of bread, rolls and pastries. This helps out about 6 regular families every week. There was no fruit and veg today but we were very lucky to get some meat.

Thrifty Thursday 5/11/20

This week I went on the hunt for Christmas bargains! I plan on sorting out my Christmas linen and decorations selling or giving away what I don't use and buying a few more which suit my style.

At one op shop I found a small stocking for 20c, a roll of wrapping paper and cellophane for 50c each. The stocking will be filled with lollies and given to a neighbour.

At another op shop I found a lovely long basket for $2, some Christmas material also $2 and wooden trees for $4 each.

Savings Sunday 1/11/20

It's been another good week here. One of the things I did was to re-whiten the grout in our  bathroom. It took a couple of days as it needs to set between coats. 

The weather was fine in the beginning of the week so I washed the sheets and clothing.

Bought petrol on Monday which is the cheapest day here and bought some cooking chocolate, marshmallows and deodorant which were half price. These will be stashed to make rocky road and for stocking fillers. I also had a look through my gift stash and found some mini bottles of shampoo, lotion and face masks to put in my families stockings as well.

I sold some items on Marketplace and made $40. I managed to buy some underwear, socks and bubble wands from Kmart, also for Christmas. I had a quick look for some Christmas pyjamas and boxer shorts for our Christmas Eve box and couldn't find any in adult sizes. I'll keep an eye out over the next few weeks. I had a look at the Christmas decorations and this section was really dismal. There was hardly any stock and what was on the shelves was broken. I'm glad I don't need to buy anything new! 

It was Halloween so I baked some Halloween cupcakes and dressed up to hand out lollies for the trick-or-treaters. Hubby cooked monster meatloaf, mashed potatoes and brocolli for dinner. 

I also baked a banana cake a batch of pikelets and Mr 14 made  triple choc muffins. 

I spent some time sewing and finally finished my Coraline inspired doll, that I started 2 years ago! I did my pick up with Second Bite and made up 4 family hampers which had fruit, vegetables, bread and sweet treats. 

Savings Sunday 27/10/20

This post is a day late because Blogger kept crashing and I was too tired to muck around with it last night! It has been a really busy but great week here. Its amazing how much I can get done when not studying! 

Homemade choc chip, peanut and oat biscuits

I finished some sewing projects like a Halloween bunting and a pincushion which is a Christmas gift to go in a sewing box. I like to get my chores done around the house in the morning so after lunch I can sit and sew. 

I have been doing the Cheapskates Christmas Challenge so I made some cards and wrapped most of the gifts. I also used up some small pieces of wrapping paper and washi tape to decorate some paper gift bags. These had printed logos on them before.

Speaking of Christmas, Coles had half price share bags of chocolate so I bought a couple for hubbys birthday in December and also a bag each for our Christmas stockings. The plan is to keep an eye out for things like this so by Dec 1st I'll be sitting back relaxing by the pool lol.

I covered some extra shifts this week for Second Bite and oh my goodness there was so much stuff! It was overwhelming to see all of the bread, pastries, fruit and veg that would normally go in the bin. This is what my kitchen looked like after Saturday's pick up! And some boxes aren't in the picture. I was able to help 9 families with this. About 24 for the week. I also dropped off a box of food to a local lady in need.

In the kitchen I used some soft tomatoes to make a pasta sauce. This was then pureed and used on pizzas. I baked some coconut, peanut and chocolate chip biscuits. Made a batch of dog food with leftover vegies from my pick up. There was also beetroot nobody wanted so I pickled some for summer. Squishy strawberries were made into jam, oregano was dried for later use along with spinach and I baked a banana cake. Phew! 

I gave away an old bookcase and 2 filing cabinets which were taking up room. I picked up 2 free metal jerry cans from Gumtree. These will be a Christmas gift for a friends son. This is at least a $40 saving for me! 

I was also gifted with lots of eggs, a big bag of dog biscuits, sour cream, mozzarella, frozen chips, butter and frozen broccoli. 

A quick visit to the opshop to drop off excess bread resulted in some good finds! Which only cost $12

A very blessed but busy week for us! Xx

Savings Sunday 18/10/20

This week I had my last exam and essay. Phew! I really enjoy studying and have met some great peers but I have also found it really challenging. I now have a break from uni until next year. I'm looking forward to having some time for craft and homemaking.

This week I redid our budget and decided to go back to using cash where possible to cutback on unnecessary spending. I was able to put some savings in the bank too.

I did some more weeding in the front garden and picked a big bag of oranges from our tree to give to a friend, and some parsley. I asked a neighbour if I could pick some of their Geraldton Wax. I think these look really pretty on our kitchen table! 

I've been re-reading Annabel's blog and was inspired to have a baking day. I made banana miracle muffins, a plum cake and chocolate crunch slice. 

I had some leftover mashed potato so made some potato patties for dinner. I cooked these in my pie maker. We had these with salad.

I did my first pick up with Second Bite. It was mostly bread and vegetables. We are able to pick what we want and then the rest I put out the front for those in need. This would all normally go in the bin and straight to landfill! Below is what was left after I took enough for my family and put some aside for neighbours who weren't home. I also added more oranges from our tree! We helped 9 families with this food.

I visited a friend and she gave me some goodies to bring home. Cereal, cleanskin beer, low sugar chocolate, tea bags, tomato relish, ginger ale and cat biscuits. We are so grateful for this! So many little things add up to big savings. I hope everyone has had a good week.

Savings Sunday 11/10/20

I had residential school for uni last week. This would normally be done on campus but is instead done via Zoom due to COVID. I had an exam last week and have one more week of school to go! 

In the kitchen I saved by dehydrated some baby spinach and ground it into a powder to add to smoothies or cooking. I cooked a large tray of Shepard's pie which we ate for dinner and the leftovers for lunch. 

Cooked a batch of rice and vegetables to add to the dogs food. When I trim carrot ends and broccoli or cauliflower stalks I add them to a bag and freeze ready for when I make a batch of this.

Baked another banana cake and iced it for morning/afternoon tea during the week and made up some mug cake mix and added it to a jar. 

I sorted out the pantry and found some cooking chocolate so made a tray of bark with sprinkles on the top.

Some other ways I saved money was by using the Honey browser extension on a clothing order, I saved $19 with this.

Used a $20 off voucher from Woolworths  $100 and got free delivery.

Mr 19's gf is a manager at McDonald's and gets free meals on her shift. There is currently a Monopoly promotion where you can win tokens for free food items so she gave us some of these. Hubby, Mr 14 and I on the way home from errands got a burger and a sundae each. Because we rarely get takeaway this was a real treat!

Picked up my prescriptions for free because we reached our safety net for the year.

I found an organisation who pick up food like bread, fruit and vegetables from supermarkets that would normally go to landfill and distribute it to those in the community for free. There is someone who volunteers in my area so I went and got some bread, fruit and veg from their house. I have signed up to be a volunteer as well which I'm excited about! 

There was some 1kg bags of coffee beans on sale for $5.95. These are normally double this price so I bought 4 of them. This will last us for a while.

There was a house in my street that had some items on there verge. I picked up these white baskets. I took the ribbon and wire hearts off to use for craft or gift wrapping.

How was your week?