Thrifty, Frugal, Fun.: My Frugal Tasks- 10/4/16

Foraged pomegranates and rosemary.

I've had a great week and have been spending a lot more time outdoors, in our garden and in nature. I think this has really helped my well being. I feel so very grateful for the life we have, which by choice is a simple one, but we have everything we need. I've been watching a few Ted talks too and found this one to be so inspirational. If you have the time, please watch it and tell me what you think. For me it has really put things in perspective.

I was so busy doing other things, I didn't get a chance to do any craft. Never mind! Here is this week's frugal tasks:

-We went to the Naturescape in King's Park and packed a picnic lunch. Mr 10 had a great time.

-Cooked some bone broth with a chicken carcass and made a big pot of chicken noodle soup.

-Packed lunches for Miss 17 to take to work.

-Puff pastry was on special at Woolworths for $2 earlier this week. I normally buy Coles brand which is $3 a packet so used a voucher I had from doing surveys and bought 7 packets which is a saving of $7.

-I also did our regular grocery shop at Coles. Only a small shop of sugar, flour, soap, cheese, eggs, cream, dish powder and toilet paper was needed which came to $50. This included a $10 bottle of vitamins.

-Baked some pastries using the puff pastry and leftover custard I had in the fridge.

-Went for a walk and picked some pomegranates from a local tree, and also some rosemary. I also collected some needles from some large pine trees which will be used to much my blueberry bush. A friend told me he does this because this helps boost the acidity level in the soil.

-I had some kombucha tea I brewed and forgot about, which had now turned into vinegar. I strained it and bottled it along with some of the foraged rosemary and poured it into bottles ready for cooking or cleaning.

-Miss 17 baked some vegan chocolate cupcakes with a plum compote filling for morning/afternoon teas.

-Saved the shower water to pour on the garden.

-Hubby filled up a wooden box we found on the verge collection with soil to use as a raised garden bed. Mr 10 and I planted our kale, silver beet and Chinese broccoli seedlings in the garden.

-Bought some turnip, leek and beetroot seeds and also a Stevia plant for the garden.

-Cooked a plate of pikelets with homemade jam to take to out Transition Towns meeting.

-Picked some strelitzias from our garden and put them in a vase to enjoy indoors.

-Defrosted our freezers and made a list of what food we have. Remember the 16 kilos of carrots I blanched a few weeks ago? They have boosted our supply up to 20 zip lock bags of sliced carrots! We also have a good variety of meat, frozen vegetables, bananas, apples, bread rolls, pastry, and hot cross buns.

-Picked up some reclaimed bread from the op shop. They haven't had sliced bread in weeks, but I got some sour dough to slice up and we are grateful for that.

-Had a fun day out at Sunflower Day, an event run by Therapy Focus. There was a sausage sizzle, reptile and animal petting zoo, silent disco, aerial trampolining, flying fox and more. All for free!

-Mr 9 and I picked up a 24 hour tummy bug, he had it worse than me. I made him some homemade electrolyte drink with orange cordial and some Himalayan pink salt, burned some peppermint oil for anti- nausea and made myself eat a few spoonfuls of raspberry jam. These all help with gastro type symptoms and I was glad to be able to treat us with ingredients in my pantry.

Hope your week was a good one! x