My Frugal Tasks 23/2/20

The weather here has been really humid over the last week. I am looking forward to it hopefully cooling down soon! This week I got ahead by:

-Planned dinners for the fortnight based on what we had on hand and updated my food inventory list.

-Collected some free fruit, vegetables and bread from our local community centre.

-Did the grocery shopping at Aldi and picked up two extra packets of turkey mince which was on special for $3.99 a kilo.

-Went to Foodbank and got some apples, broccoli, high protein yoghurt, stir-fry sauce, party sausage rolls and protein enriched pancake mix.

-Picked around 10 kilos of grapes from our vine. We gave some to neighbours, friends and donated the rest to a local community centre. 

-Chopped and dried the chillies from our garden for later use.

-The suburb next to us had a verge collection so we picked up some Christmas ornaments, cushions, lamps and a single inflatable mattress.

-Sold a clothes rack on Gumtree for $20

-Kept the curling ribbon that was on some helium balloons that Mr 18's girlfriend had bought for him. I will use this for decorating our Christmas presents.

-Gratefully received a few food items from a friend.

-Made 2 chicken breasts stretch to feed 6 people by making chicken and vegetable pies. There was also enough to freeze for another meal.

My Frugal Tasks 17/2/2020

It has been a busy week here. I've been trying to get all the little annoying jobs around the house done before I start uni next week! If it's anything like TAFE, I'm expecting to be spending all of my time studying. Here is this week's list of frugal tasks.

-Did some grocery shopping at the Food bank. There wasn't much fresh fruit or vegetables but I did manage to stock up on some eggs, frozen veg, dog biscuits, flavoured milk, meat and a few other items. We pay $1.25 a kilo there, so often it is much cheaper than supermarkets.

-Cooked a large tray of vegetable lasagne and froze half for another meal.

-Made a large pot of pumpkin, lentil and spinach curry. This served 3 of us for dinner with rice, put some in the fridge for easy lunches and also froze some.

-Carpet swept the floor rather than vacuuming.

-We had a couple of really hot days where using the air conditioner was needed. To counteract this I set up regular payments through bpay to my power provider. By doing this hopefully my bill won't be too big!

-Picked more grapes from our vine.

-Valentine's Day was on Friday and I challenged hubby to do something nice for each other with what we had on hand. He set up the foot spa and gave me a foot massage afterwards. I thought about packing a picnic, but the weather was too hot. Instead I set up the bedroom with candles and gave him an aromatherapy back and shoulder massage. Later I put a bottle of sparkling moscato which I got for my birthday in the fridge and we drank that with dinner. Well hubby had a glass and I drank the rest! How was your gal/pal/valentines day? 

My Frugal Tasks 9/2/2020

Hi there,  I've decided to try and get back ino posting regularly on the blog. I'll start simply by aiming to post my frugal tasks for the week every Sunday. We have some savings goals and hopefully this will help to keep us on track! This week was an exciting one with verge collection in our area. Hubby and I went "shopping" and picked up some great things which I'll do a separate post about later. My frugal tasks for last week were: 

-Made a batch of laundry gel and stain remover.

-Picked chilli's and grapes from our garden. We have so many grapes I've been eating some every day and gave some away to neighbours and friends!

-Oven dried old bread to make breadcrumbs.

-Cooked some peaches to make a compote.

-Washed some of Hubby's sneakers and cleaned the rubber with a melamine sponge. These turned out almost like new

-Gratefully received some snacks, watermelon, stationary and razors from a friend who was having a clean out.

-Took advantage of the warm weather and washed all our bed lined and pillows.

-Did a freezer and pantry audit as well as a meal plan so no meat was needed to buy for this fortnight. I am trying to use up what I have and we will be eating equal amounts of meat as vegetarian meals.

-Managed to put some money in our savings accounts and extra on the mortgage.

I hope you've all had a good week! 

I'm back

Hi everyone. Thank you for all your kind messages, I really appreciate them. I am happy to say that I am in recovery and am doing well. Unfortunately I had been struggling with my mental illness for quite some time. Things had gotten so bad because I had been neglecting my own health and thought I could just keep going when in fact, I was pouring from an empty cup. Time, therapy and medication have given me my life back.

A lot has been happening here. Mr 10 (Rowan) is now 13, and going to our local community school. He also is involved in Brazilian Ju Jitsu and loves it, and just won a silver metal in a competition yesterday.

Mr 14 (Tom) is now 17 and finished school last year. He is currently working 2 jobs and  is looking for a trade apprenticeship.

Miss 17 (Abigail) is now 20, and has had a few jobs but is currently unemployed. She has had her own mental health issues and we just had a first year anniversary with no hospital admissions, yay!

As for me, last year I started volunteering at a local community organization and also completed my Certificate lll in Community Services. This year I am studying full-time at Tafe (college) doing my Diploma in Community Services. The course is quite full on, but I'm really enjoying it.

My hubby (Richard) is still having chronic pain issues. He is pretty much running the house most days while I'm attending lectures.

We are still living frugally, I now have student fees to pay off and have redone a budget. Our mortgage is down to around $30, 000. We also have done some upgrades to our home including new security doors and roller shutters. So what's everyone else been up to? I'd love to hear all about it in the comments below.

Taking a break...

I am taking a short break from blogging. I've had mental health issues in the past and am currently struggling once again. I made the decision to go on medication a couple of weeks ago, and I am now working my way through the side effects which have me feeling exhausted at the smallest of tasks. Right now my only focus is to get well again.

Thank you to all my wonderful readers for your support and positive comments, it means a lot to me!

xx

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

I have mentioned in a few of my frugal tasks posts, that I make a homemade hot chocolate mix. A few readers have asked for it, so I thought I would share it today. This is my version of a recipe found on allrecipes.com which was not chocolate-y or sweet enough for my liking. I tweaked the ratios and am pleased with the result.

I have not worked out the exact price per batch, but it would be much cheaper than buying Milo and those sachets of hot chocolate!

We love drinking this in the cooler months and if packaged in a jar or cellophane bag, it would also make a nice gift.



1 and 3/4 cup of milk powder
3/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 cup of white sugar
pinch of salt

Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir through until well mixed.
Store in a sealed jar, tin or container. I store mine in an old medium sized Moccona coffee jar.

To use, add 2 heaped teaspoons of hot choc mix to a cup or mug. Add as much milk as you would like, I use the same amount as I would use in a cup of tea. Once the milk is added, stir well. Top your cup up with boiling water and stir again.

Adding the milk to the mix first, gives it a nice froth on the top.

Enjoy!

My Frugal Tasks 4/9/16

Frugal Father's Day gifts.

This week has been a super busy one in my house! My eldest son turned 15, it was also my stepsons girlfriend's birthday and then of course Fathers Day. Mr 10 has been really sick with tonsillitis so in between baking cakes and making gifts I've been snuggling on the couch with him.

Financially this week has been a great one. We found out due to an interest change our mortgage payments have gone down and thanks to buying things on sale, I saved over $200 on my sons birthday gifts. We set a budget of $100 for the kids birthdays, which when they are younger can buy a lot but teens, not so much! We gave him some cologne, a brand name jacket and a jumper which he was super happy with. It was so great to find all of those items on sale!
Thanks to in sourcing, this week we have saved over $800! I don't participate in the Vicky Challenge every week, but when I do I am always amazed at the savings.

So here are my frugal tasks for this week:

-Baked Mr 15's birthday cake. As requested it was a caramel cake. I made caramel icing, salted caramel sauce and some toffee shards to go on top. We have a tradition where the birthday person gets to choose what they want for dinner. He chose chicken, bacon and salad wraps with chips. These were really yummy and cost under $20 including drinks to make for the 5 of us. If we went out to eat this would have cost more than $100!

-Used my homemade bunting and decorations from our 'party box' to decorate the table for Mr 15. These get reused for everyone's birthdays! His gifts were wrapped with silver paper I bought in the post Christmas sales.

-Made another batch of garlic aioli and a jar of hot chocolate mix.

-Picked more kale, silverbeet and oranges from the garden and gave some to a friend who visited and also my parents in law.

-For my stepsons girlfriends birthday, I made a Harry Potter wand and hubby made a box for it to fit into. I also made her a chocolate frog in a box. We had most of the items on hand to make these, and I only had to buy the ribbon.  She is a huge Harry Potter fan and loved these!

-Used $22 worth of Chemist Warehouse vouchers I earned from completing online surveys. This meant our vitamins and prescriptions were free this week.

-Made hubby some chocolates and caramel nut popcorn for Fathers Day. We also gave him a toolbox which I bought ages ago from Kmart and stashed it away. The original price was $20, I paid only $1! He was so happy with this gift! Mr 10 made him a keyring at a Bunnings kids craft session and the teens both bought him chocolates.

-Cooked hubby a Fathers Day breakfast of bacon and eggs, clearly my boys miss bacon! I defrosted some orange juice we had to go with this too and also made spaghetti bolognaise and a chocolate cake  for dinner.

-Did the regular stuff like after boiling the kettle, storing the hot water in a thermos, hung clothes outside to dry and used my carpet sweeper and broom instead of vacuuming.

How was your week?

Mr 15 and the requested caramel cake.

Harry Potter wand, box and chocolate frog.

Cooked breakfast for Father's Day