Savings Sunday 27/9/20

This week has been super productive. I had a 3 day break from uni so I got loads of housework done that has been bothering me. I weeded 3/4 of the front garden beds, cleaned the stove top, tiles, cupboards, bathroom and toilet, dusted all surfaces, wiped down all the walls, skirting, doors and vaccuumed the floors. 

These are all jobs that have been let go since i started studying 12 weeks ago. Hubby does a great job of keeping up with the dishes, washing and folding clothes and errands like shopping, school run and occasionally he will cook dinner. Lately he has also been working on the back garden. But the little jobs tend to get neglected. The house feels nice and clean now and it was enjoyable, I love a good clean its quite relaxing for me. 

Some other things I did were cooked some soft tomatoes and used as a sauce for homemade pizzas and the leftover sauce was put in a spaghetti bolognaise. One night I cooked sausages for dinner and drained the fat into the lard jar. This gets used in place of oil in cooking. I made a large pot if rice and vegetables for the dogs to stretch their meat, its also healthy for them. I used to do this regularly but stopped because it took up too much room in our freezer and fridge, but now we have our outdoor fridge I can make a batch every week. I also baked a banana cake. 

Picked up some bread, rolls, bananas, capsicum and a leek from the community centre and we car pooled with our neighbour for a trip to the Foodbank. We spent $50 and got meat, flour, sugar, cake mixes, yoghurt, muffins, milk, juice, carrots, broccoli, and spinach. 

Made a batch of stain remover and laundry gel and diluted the dish liquid, shampoo and conditioner with a bit of water. I also save all the small ends of soap to put in a small linen bag thats kept in the shower as a soap scrubber, I topped this up. 

It was mostly fine weather all week so the washing was hung outside. 

Saved some white tissue paper from a package which went into my gift wrapping box and kept some oxygen absorber sachets to reuse. 

We reached our Medicare safety net threshold this is earlier than normal so our prescriptions are free until the end of the year. This fortnight we saved around $20 on medications.

Savings Sunday 20/9/20

The exciting news I mentioned last week was we have paid off our mortgage! We had a family dinner of homemade lasagna, garlic bread and chocolate cake (complete with a 30c candle) to celebrate. I don't think it has sunk in yet, this is something we've strived really hard for years to achieve! 

Juiced oranges from our garden, cooked a large lasagna and a big pot of Thai green chicken curry to have a couple of nights off from cooking. 

Mr 19 sorted out his room and gave me a birthday gift bag, bow and shredded paper, he knows I reuse gift wrapping where possible. He also gave Mr 14 some of his "outdated" socks, which were like new. I love when he declutters as we all end up with all kinds of cool stuff! 

I installed the Honey browser extension and saved $7 on some Christmas gifts. I bought makeup from Australis with a 50% off sale on everything and free postage. I needed mascara and Miss 21 and I both needed more foundation. I also got some lipsticks were $3.50 on clearance so I got them for $1.25 each!

Hubby picked up some free crumpets, English muffins, bread, celery, cucumber and a bunch of white roses from the community centre.

A friend gave us a couple of pairs of jeans and a grocery bag full of cat food from one of her clients who had a cat that passed away.

Another friend dropped off a hamper from her church. This had frozen vegetables, milk, bread, apple pies (lots of pies, so we gave some to our neighbours) juice, cakes, sausage rolls and meat pies, potatoes, lettuce and soup pouches which I reheated for dinner with some rice. We were really blessed this week! 

Savings Sunday 13/09/20

This week, I have been focusing on spending as little money as possible and making do with what we have. The reason for this will soon be revealed! 

Had a browse on Gumtree and found a photo frame, pillow cases and a faux eucalyptus branch which were free. White is my colour so I was stoked! 

Set up my sewing machine and hemmed a skirt, pants and repaired a hole in a mattress protector. 

No grocery shopping for us this week so I sorted our food cupboards, fridge and freezers and hubby got some free bread, fruit and salad from the community centre. Also pucked oranges from our tree.

I cooked a zuchinni slice for dinner, using the massive zucchinis we got last week. This turned out a disaster and really watery due to the size if the zuchinnis, but the dogs liked it! I baked a banana cake, a batch of scones,  blanched some carrots and froze them along with the free bananas and snow peas. 

It was sunny weather all week so all the washing got done as well as sheets and quilts. I spent the weekend watching movies and crafting, which was a pleasant break from study! 

Savings Sunday 7/09/20

Last week we celebrated Mr 19's birthday with  dinner and cake at home and also Fathers Day. 

Mr 19 asked for homemade chicken burgers and a caramel mudcake. 

For Fathers Day Imade hubby some chocolate tools using moulds I have and Mr 14 made some chocolate dipped pretzels for him. We also bought a bag of choc coated peanuts and almonds and put them in a jar. We had a family dinner of bbq sausages in buns with onion and bacon, I made some brownies,  choc chip biscuits and made up a dessert platter using some chocolates we had in the cupboard. 

I also used some of our homegrown pumpkins and cooked a pot of pumpkin soup to eat for lunch during the week and a pumpkin and chickpea curry for dinner one night.

I tried making a caramel icing for the mudcake but it didn't turn out with my homemade brown sugar, so instead I added an egg, flour and choc chips and it became the choc chip biscuits for Father's Day! 

We went to the Foodbank and they had lots of vegetables. I got a box of cherry tomatoes, I dehydrated some and made a big pot of pureed tomatoes for the freezer. 

There was also green beans which I blanched and dehydrated, corn which I cut the kernals off and froze and kept some cobs to eat. Zucchinis which were grated and frozen and broccoli and cauliflower. The Foodbank haven't had much lately, and I've learned that when they do I should get enough to last a couple of weeks!