Feather your Nest Friday, 3rd April, 2015

Happy Easter to everyone. I feel Good Friday is a somber day and very reflective. But the rest of Easter is a joy and celebration. I hope you have a wonderful Easter with your family.

April snuck up on me and I still haven't written down my goals for the month. But I will over the weekend. I like to think about it.

It feels cooler, we had a little rain. Autumn is evident in the first leaves falling. We get gorgeous autumn leaves here and I always collect some especially the really huge leaves that are so stunning. A bowl full of them looks lovely.

I had lots of chances to do things to save money this week. It was go go go! 

I saved money by...

Planting more parsley seeds from my parsley covered in seed heads. In the end I pulled it up and sat and cut off all the seed heads and kept them in a container. During the week I planted these in all kinds of spaces in the garden and watered them everyday. The ones I planted last week are coming up. I have hundreds of babies!  Apart from being useful this will look wonderful as parsley is so lush and pretty. Plus everywhere you have a plant you don't have a weed!

I also planted out, because of the first rain, several cuttings that I had started in glass bottles inside. They all had root systems. This included pale pink geraniums and some different flowering ground covers. It amounted to almost a dozen free pretty plants. All are looking ok.

From Tumby Bay trip I had a bag of succulent cuttings. A walk is not a walk without cuttings :) I added these to my little succulent patch. And in there I noticed some little babies that can be separated for the succulents in a jar or teacup or interesting container projects. I have so many! They are really quick to multiply. I started most of these from bits from Mums garden.

We all had a dinner at Mums for Katos birthday. I asked Mum what to bring..  She was doing a roast and had made a chocolate cake. So I made a big tray of roast veggies. I included potato, sweet potato, Pumpkin,  zucchini, carrots, parsnips and onions. Everyone got stuck into the roast veggies with the roast lamb. 

I have to say I got this tip from Wendy in the $300 challenge. She said when going out and taking food it is easy to spend a lot of money. Don't! In this case a huge tray of veggies was a hit and not expensive. Other times a potato salad or a cake, scones (biscuits), a rice salad... You think of all the things you can make that everyone always loves but are not costly. Somehow this revolutionised my contributions and made them less expensive and just as much a hit. Perhaps we feel we need to take something flash? But really people love comfort wholesome food. This simple tip has now saved me so many times!

When cutting up the veggies I retained some of each, just enough for us the next night. Mum sent us home with left over broccoli so the next night I just added meat.

Mum  also sent us home with walnut bread and goats cheese. This went towards the next two days work lunches. It is amazing what you can a make into lunch box snacks. I would say Andy hasn't had the same lunch twice ever!

For the girls I made Easter baskets. Instead of a ton of chocolate they got one chocolate each and a little basket of practical but nice things...pretty dish cloths, detergent, scrub pads, relish, pantry foods etc to have some treats and save them money. I wrapped them up with pastel tissue and a bow. I had saved items for a few weeks to do this. Not really saving me money, saving them money though. Easter and other celebrations can be expensive and a bit wasteful. I used to give a little chocolate and as Easter for us is the beginning of the cooler weather I gave warm pyjamas, or slippers, or something cozy like a scarf. Eggs might be wrapped inside, to me that was better than a lot of money on eggs.

At the supermarket I found Turkish bread and Turkish rolls. The rolls were usually $5.75 a pack and the loaf not much less. They were all $1. I got five packs. That is ten meals for us with left over cheeses, Hama or other meat, salad... Well, left over nigh. Toasties, "pizza", open toasted sandwiches... Steak sandwiches, burgers...all of these things. I keep it frozen and there are many possibilities all yum, easy  and fast. This is much better than takeaway and much cheaper. So when I see mark downs like this I stock up.  Takeaway seems to be a problem for lots of people. If you keep easy and fast meals on hand then you have a faster alternative. When the kids are old enough they can be in charge and make assemble your own toasted sandwiches and make dinner for everyone.

I built up my home with a good clean and tidy up, adding to the garden, adding to the cellar and starting to get out so autumn things like a throw for the lounge and some candles.

I did all the usual things, made all the lunches, watered the garden with the laundry water, shopped for great specials and mark downs, the boys went fishing and I pack a full days lunch, drinks and snacks in an esky. We all have things we do that are really huge savings. But because we always do them we don't even think of them! Now and then it is amazing to work out how much that one thing saves. From one time the boys bought fishing day lunch and drinks on their own, and I found out how much it was, I know me doing this saves around $1000 a year. Plus they love what I send! Can you believe that saving! You will really feel good if you work this out. Then start adding the numbers together!  Laine always would show Art her work. Well, I will often tell Andy these things. The other day he said how great the packed lunch was and I said "thank you for telling me, do you know this is saving us $1000 a year!?" He was amazed! It just feels really good!  It is like what we are doing here... A little celebration of how we did to re energise us for next week. 

I know a lot of little things we do can just seem pointless at times especially if they are not appreciated. But when you see the whole picture and realise how important your work is then it changes everything. I read on another blog of a lady who said she didn't sit around watching soapies all day since she has an important job and works for the King! How lovely is that!

How was your week and how did you save money or feather your nest? I hope it was a good week. Have a wonderful Easter and long weekend as well. We are getting a few things that need doing done around the house and garden. The weather is just beautiful and I am trying to soak it in. Perfect to be in the garden as much as possible. Now over to you all.... Xxx