My Frugal List: Week of August 20
I was a very busy bee this week. I worked 4 days this week. They asked me to work an additional day but I said no. It would have been too much. 2 of the days were full 8 hour days, the other 2 were normal 5 1/2 hour days. I had to spend Wednesday at Jury Duty. I didn't get picked which I am grateful for. Since I worked all of last weekend when we got home from vacation, I haven't had a day off.
The garden is going crazy which is wonderful. I really needed to use up the produce before it went bad. Saturday I got down to business. So first thing in the morning I went through the garden and picked a bunch of veggies. I then started chopping tomatoes. And there were a lot. Next up was to use the tomato mill (Thanks Mom & Dad). Then I made my largest pot of sauce. I had to wait for it to reduce some to add the rest in.
When it was ready we had some for dinner. The rest was canned. I got 6 quarts and 3 pints for my pantry. I like to do some pints for certain meals that don't need a full quart. All canning water was put on my plants when it had cooled down.
While the sauce was reducing down, I started working on the cucumbers. I make refrigerator dill pickles. They are good for about 4 months in the fridge, but they never last that long. I started slicing them.
I made 10 pints. They need to sit for at least 3 days. We put onion in them too because we enjoy them that way.
I got the bread machine working for me too. I had gotten tart cherry juice a while back for free. We tried it and didn't like it. So I made jelly with half of it. I had never made this kind before so I only did one batch to see if we liked it. We do. Thank goodness for sugar. I will make another batch soon with the other half of the juice. Since it was only one and a half pints I didn't can it. We will eat it within the next month so that it doesn't go bad.
We have been eating so many garden veggies recently. BLTs have been very popular.
Different omelets are getting made. Basically what ever veggies need to be eaten are getting thrown into meals.
Peppers are in lots of meals. We have had sausage and peppers, and chicken quesadillas again this week. All meals were at home or brought with us except one free night out. I also bought a slice of pizza one day at work because they asked me to stay 8 hours instead of my normal 5 1/2. I had brought snacks but not lunch.
I had gotten strawberries on sale for 99¢ a container. So we had waffles with strawberries and strawberry milk shakes. They are so much better with fresh fruit.
I even had a special guest visit me in my garden. I haven't seen a praying mantis is years.
He was hanging out all day there. I checked on him several times and made sure Oreo didn't bother him.
I got some free items from Petco. The coupons are still good until August 31.
Lots of laundry has been washed on the cold short cycle with half the recommended detergent. 95% has been hung outside on the line and racks.
The weather has been much nicer this week. High around 80 degrees. We haven't needed the air conditioners on. Just fans. We have enjoyed the fire pit several nights.
Hubby and I went on a date to Madison Square Garden to see Billy Joel. It was free from a vendor of hubbies. It was in a private box with food and drinks included. We had so much fun singing along. I stood up and danced half of the night. It was funny to me because it was mostly women that were standing and dancing. It was a late night for us but it was worth it.
It was a really busy week but I got a lot done and worked a bunch of extra hours. What did you do this week to save money?
Hi Mcoia and you did really well building up your pantry with all of those lovely tomatoes, cucumbers and doing some sweet cherry jelly too. Billy Joel's concert would have been wonderful :).
ReplyDeleteOur savings and earnings added up to $154.49 last week :).
Here is what we did to save, build our pantry and accomplished -
Finances & earnings -
- Listed 10 more handmade items on eBay using a free listing promotion saving $16.50 in usual listing fees.
- Made $65.20 from the sale of 1 5 layer cotton eye mask, a homemade triple layer table runner & 100 stems of dried English lavender stems picked and dried from the gardens.
- Banked more money into home deposit savings account bringing us to 28.04% of the way there.
In the kitchen -
- Made 2.8 kg of honey, almond, coconut and sultana granola from food storage for $8.55 saving $28.69 over purchasing the same amount in the supermarkets in equivalent quality and ingredients.
Pantry stock ups-
- Topped up on special saving an additional $29 on normal prices on 2 x 400 ml cocoa moisturiser, 6 x vanilla beans, 1 pkt of coffee filters for filtering vanilla extract, 12 pkts of 100 g smoked oysters, 6 x 250 g pkts of cracker biscuits, 8 x 100g pkts of twisties for snacks, 2 x 375 g pkts of dried chick peas, 18 x 250 g pkts of baking chocolate chips. The savings included specials and redeeming a $10 supermarket rewards voucher for buying our normal groceries.
- Purchased 10 punnets of 250 g strawberries for 0.95c per punnet combining specials and a further 5% off using our roadside assist gift card discount saving $15.50 on usual prices. We washed, chopping or halved and froze them for future batches of jam and for desserts.
Home organisation -
- Went under the house and did a stocktake on all the firewood we have to see if we had enough for winter this year and next and we will need to cut more while it is cool. We re stacked it from small to large. Interesting experiment as we are both tall and the cottage is 2'6" off the ground and we are both tall so our legs were getting tangled up and we were pulling ourselves out from under there, quite amusing :) but we got it done.
- Tackled organising the 3 bay machinery garage as we just threw things in there when we moved. Took everything out and pressure cleaned the shed, garden equipment, BBQ and smoker, wiped over shelving units, fuel containers and put it all back again. Speaking of spiders, eek, there was a heap of Redback spiders and egg sacks we blasted into oblivion with the pressure cleaner as no way I am touching those even with thick leather gloves on. Still have the boxes of power tools and bits and pieces to sort and box in an organised fashion next week to finish it off. This will help us when we move having everything boxed, organised and labelled too.
- Did our 3 monthly grocery shop using 2 of our $240 for $200 e-vouchers and dated, rotated and put everything away. While we were at it we re-organised the food storage pantry room so we have more room on the gorilla shelves to stock up on more food. It is amazing with a bit of re-organisation how much more you can fit into a small space.
Have to say we are both sore and worn out after this week but it was worth it to see the results of everything looking clean and organised :).
Hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead :).
Sewingcreations15.
You hit 28%. That is wonderful. That must have been fun restacking all of the fire wood. I hope you are able to get more for free. You deserve a nice nap. Have a wonderful week.
ReplyDeleteGreat week! Those tomatoes sure are pretty. It seems like we eat tomatoes every day - taking advantage while we can. Soon they will be gone.
ReplyDeleteHave a good week.
Isn't it sad how quick they are gone. We are enjoying all of the fresh veggies while they last.
DeleteAside from all the free mulch I got earlier last week, we picked up 60 bags of steer compost for only 1.00/bag. I am close to being ready to begin m,y "Back to Eden" garden.
ReplyDeleteOther stock ups this week aside from the weekly Diet Coke, Johnsonville Brats were on sale for 2.48/pkg.
What is a Back to Eden garden? Free mulch is great and that is cheap compost.
DeleteBack to Eden garden is getting and treating the land as it was in the Beginning. No chemicals, fertilizer, additional watering just the way the earth is in the forests and prairies now, the compost and mulch should break down all winter enriching the soil below for the new butterfly garden I want to have in the spring along with the raised veggie beds. There is a fantastic presentation on YouTube.
DeleteThanks for explaining. I will have to check it out.
DeleteWow your place looks like mine, we are being taken over by tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteIt is wonderful.
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