My Frugal Tasks

I havent been able to meal plan because my laptop is broken and this has all my food inventory and meal plans on there! It feels strange to me as I like knowing what Ill be cooking for dinner. Instead I've been making dinner based around what I have in the fridge that needs to be used which has been working out really well. I have done lots of cooking and gotten ahead with food because food is life!

-Picked up some free vegetables, eggs, potted parsley, basil, bacon and cake from the community centre. This was amazing! I dried some of the herbs and potted the rest of the plants in the garden.

-Made some pizzas for lunch using a tin of tomatoes, pita bread, red onion, bacon, mushrooms and cheese. The ingredients were free minus the tinned tomatoes and cheese.

-I cooked a roast pork for dinner along with roasted vegetables and extra butternut pumpkins which needed to be used.

-With the extra leftover roast pumpkin I made a large batch of pumpkin soup.

-The roast pork was stretched to make 3 meals for 4 people. The other meal I made was shredded pork and salad wraps. After this there was still a small amount of pork left so I added onion, garlic, cumin, paprika and some overripe tomatoes to a pot with some tomato paste, a tin of butter beans and the diced pork. This made enough for 4 bowls full with a side cornbread which I'd planned to make but I'd run out of cornmeal so made garlic flat bread instead.

-I cut the fat from the raw bacon and cooked it in a pan until crisp then poured the oil into a jar which I keep in the fridge. I do this with all excess meat fat and use it in place of oil when cooking onions etc. It adds a lovely flavour to the food and is free!

-Did heaps of washing on 

-Bleached and dyed my hair using supplies I buy in bulk.

-Received my neem oil in the mail from eBay, which was cheaper than buying at Bunnings. Neem is an effective natural insecticide and can be used topically when diluted correctly as well as made into a spray to use on fruit trees and vegetable plants. 

-I made a large tray of apple crumble cake with free apples that needed to be used up. It was stewed apples on the bottom, a vanilla cake batter poured over the top and then a mixture of flour, oats, butter and small bit of sugar sprinkled over the top and baked. This was delicious and I gave half to a neighbour.

-I bought some vodka on sale and made some more vanilla extract.

-I found some Easter items on clearance for 20c a pack.

-I made some luminaries for the courtyard using empty milk bottles. They look good and throw out a nice glow with tealight candles inside.

My Frugal Tasks 5/4/20

Sorry I didn't write a post for last week, I wasn't feeling up to it. Life is overwhelming right now for a lot of people with job losses and food insecurity due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Its strange to see children's playgrounds closed and shops empty. People all over the world are worried. In WA it has now been advised that children are to stay home from school and we should only leave home for work, essential groceries, doctors appointments or to exercise. It all feels very dystopian to me. 

I am just taking a day at a time and doing the best I can right now and trying to focus on the positive things I can do to make my family feel secure. Mr 14 is home now so I will be helping him with his schoolwork. I have deferred my studies until Semester 2, because its been hard for me to focus on my work and at this point in time I need to focus on home schooling.

I have been doing some craft which helps!  I am painting a vinyl dragon right now and will post a picture when it's done. I hope everyone is managing the best they can xx

-This week I gave a homemade mask to a friend who works as a driver and sold a couple to her colleagues.

-Hung the washing out to dry as the weather has been fine.

-Made a batch of butter blend.

-Set up a cleaning routine which I found on r/cleaning tips. My printer is broken so I wrote it out by hand and stuck it on the fridge.

-Early in the week I ran out of bread so made some dough and turned it into cheese and vegemite scrolls.

-Hubby went to the Foodbank truck and bought a $15 meat pack and there was also free bread! He got fruit bread and hot cross buns. I was so excited because we didn't have any.

- A local IGA was offering free 2-litre milk for concession cardholders so he picked up one for us and also took our neighbour to get one as well.

- Meal planned for the fortnight using what we have in the fridge, freezer and pantry.

-Did grocery shopping at the Foodbank. It was quite different as now they only let a few shoppers in at a time. Everyone has to wear gloves and the trolleys are all disinfected before use. It was quite surreal. We were able to buy some yoghurt, fruit, vegetables and pantry items. They were also giving away free apples and spearmint milk. We froze some milk and gave some to the neighbours. I put most of the apples in the fridge and also baked an apple cake. I'll have to go back there next week as I didn't realise until later that I was overcharged.

-Last week it was Mr 14's birthday! We had dinner at home and he requested honey chicken which he has had for the last few years in a row. Instead of a cake, he wanted a chocolate fondue with brownies, banana, strawberries and marshmallows.

- I made some cards as I was running low. They are pretty basic, but fun to make!