My Frugal Tasks 3/4/16

It's been a great but busy week here. Mr 9 turned 10 on Tuesday and we celebrated his day of birth. This boy of mine is growing so fast and I am blessed to be his mama! He also passed his stage 5 of swimming lessons and we celebrated by buying an icy pole from the pool canteen. This bought me right back to my childhood.

Miss 17 got a job this week! She has been job hunting for ages with no luck. She has a few months until her course starts, so has been doing volunteer work at an aged care centre and applying for work and attending interviews in her spare time. It is at a takeaway place in the city, a 25 minute train ride away and she is pretty excited. this will be a great step towards building confidence and independence for her. Now both my teens work at rival burger companies!

I also managed to get some other frugal tasks done too. It is really important to me that as a family we make the most of the blessings and resources we have.

-Monday was a public holiday, so we went for a picnic and bush walk. This is something we like to make time for regularly but because of the extended hot weather haven't been able to do so until now. It was so lovely and relaxing. The boys had a fun time building a nature cubby house, we went for a walk and just sat and chatted. I packed some rolls, boiled eggs, Easter biscuits, chips and water. We already had all this on hand so the day only cost the petrol in our tank.

-When it is our family birthdays, I ask each person what they would like me to cook for dinner and what birthday cake they would like. This year Mr 10 picked Chinese style honey chicken, with steamed rice and prawn crackers. I have never cooked this dish before but it was pretty easy and it was delicious. There was  enough for lunch the next day too. I found the recipe for honey chicken on YouTube here. His choice of cake was a double layer marble cake, with vanilla buttercream, decorated with mini marshmallows and M&M's. Super easy!

-I stitched up some felt hearts and put them on sticks from my garden to make a table centerpiece for the birthday boy. I put them in an empty iced tea bottle and they look great. I will store them in our party box ready for an easy table display. I decorated the table with his gifts and some "Happy Birthday" table scatters that we re use every year, and also hung up some bunting I've made. I also made some white hearts one sticks to match the decor in my games room.

-Cleaned out my fridge and found some soft plums and apples nobody had eaten. I used the apples to made 2 apple strudels, one for dessert and one for the freezer. We enjoyed this with custard. It was so yummy I forgot to take a photo! With the plums I made a plum compote which has been lovely on porridge for breakfast. 

-I received some large empty coffee jars and grapes from my friends dad who we have been helping out. I was so excited about the jars, as they will be perfect to put in homemade cookies and give away as gifts. Grapes are great to because we were running low on fruit.

-Received some oranges from another friend, which was really needed.

-We borrowed some books from the library. I am currently reading The Moneyless Manifesto by Mark Boyle. I am really enjoying it so far. You can also read it free online too.

-I made some raspberry jam with cheap fruit for our gift cupboard.

-Cooked some yummy meals this week with what I had on hand including vegetarian pizza, vegetable roast, spanish eggs and fried rice.

-We went to a local school open day. There were some lovely handmade stalls to browse at and we did free science experiments, treasure hunt and ate biscuits baked by the students.

-With the month of March now over. I calculated our debt totals as well. It was a really good month financially.

Our picnic spot.

The dining table set up for the birthday boy.

Scrap bunting.

Mr 10's birthday dinner.

Gifted glass jars.

Current library reads.

Squishy fruit destined for the compost, can be turned into something delicious.

Jam made for gifts.

Homemade garlic and cheese and vegetable pizza.

Plum compote on porridge. Yum!

Gifted oranges.

Science yo.

Decorating biscuits at the open day.

March debt totals.