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? 

Savings Sunday 4/10/20

This week was good, I am tired but happy. There is only a couple more weeks until uni is finished and I am on Summer break. I have made a list of jobs to do when im on break! 

I cooked a big pot of pumpkin and chickpea curry using the last of our homegrown pumpkins. Mr 14 baked a chocolate fudge pudding which we had for dessert with cream. It is like a self saucing pudding and so yummy. I cooked a tray of broccoli and cheese gratin and used up sour cream in this. I saved the broccoli stems to use in dog food which I will make next week. I also made a cheese sauce using the sour cream. This will be used during the week with pasta for an easy dinner. I baked a banana cake and used sour cream instead of milk. 

Gave a friend a homemade soy candle, body wash and face mask from my gift stash. She gave me a 5kg bag of rice as they had excess and mulberries from their tree. I made three jars of jam with the mulberries and one went into the gift cupboard. 

Finished a tube of handcream and cut the tube open to get the remains out. This filled a small container.

Visited some friends in Fri night for a couple of drinks and a catch up. They gave us some muesli bars, eggs and a box of jars. This was wonderful as I'm running low on jars! 

Picked up some free bread, English muffins and flatbread from the community centre. The flatbread I put in the freezer to use as pizza bases. 

I finally finished painting a vinyl dragon for Mr 14. The West Australian Reborn Doll show was on Sunday and I entered 3 of the dolls I painted. I won a ribbon best in category for my alien doll! I also entered the dragon and a devil baby. I have lots of fun making the alternative dolls but will probably sell these ones so I can buy more kits to paint.

Here a some of the other ladies dolls.