Feather your Next Friday, 18th December 2015.

This has been a busy week and a hot one. We are having days in the 40s and nights in the 30s (that's hundreds and eighties) so there isn't much relief at night. To get this is pretty normal in Adelaide but we didn't have a hot summer last year and it is a shock to go back to it!

I did lots of Christmas visiting and giving out presents too. But even though it was a hot and busy week I still have so many good things to report I am actually quite excited! It was a good week!

So some of the ways I saved money include:

I made Coconut Ice. This gave me small gifts to give on all my outings this week.

The recipe is easy and it is so pretty. Coconut Ice.

On my drying ladder I had pink rose buds already dried. From other years I know this is perfect for decorating this. I had picked them from Mum's pink rose bush. Well, they are lovely! Roses are great for decorating food, soaps and all kinds of things. This was an 100% free added touch!

After decorating all my Coconut Ice parcels I had a heap of rose buds left for something else. Truly dried flowers are so handy!  So I have these toward another project...

Last summer I sugared some roses to cover a cake. If you have roses and no sprays they are gorgeous on cakes, cup cakes etc. Nothing will beat them and it is free!

I made baby food for Harper. I want her to have bone broth in her vegies so I used a lamb shank and vegies and let it simmer all day. Then I froze it in muffin trays and turned them out into snap lock bags.

This was my little way of helping. Now, on The Vicky Challenge I would write down a saving of $70 on my days list as I worked out that my crock pot produces something like $79 worth of baby food if you bought it in little jars from the store. My ingredients were less than $9 to I will say I made $70 for this effort. Not bad as I guess cutting up vegies and fiddling around all up amounted to well under an hours work (not counting it's cooking time while I did other stuff!)
If you missed The Vicky Challenge it is a challenge starting in January which you can catch up on here.

I visited my Aunt and she gave me bags of jars! Amongst them were two huge old jars, one with a lid and one without. I am going to paint the lid and add a rose and keep that one for my storage collection.

The jars will be ready for jam and relish making which is coming up very soon.

My Aunt also gave me oranges from her tree. I am using them in salads and we had two last night this way.

Chloe and I hosted an afternoon tea for my Uncle. Since he lives alone we had an afternoon tea to give him his presents. On Wednesday it came up how expensive going out for lunch or coffee can be. Well, this is what we do. Being for a man it is not one of my pink china days though!

The Coconut Ice came in handy again and we told some hilarious family stories and it was really nice.

This is how many cherry tomatoes I pick each day at the moment...

They are really handy and we are keeping up with them!

Andy's workmate (who I keep sending Christmas cooking to) sent me this...

Don't you love the Christmas greeting? This is 120 metres of baking paper! He knows I bake and thought I would like this! And I do!

A friend of my Nan's Loris went into a nursing home. All her life she has been a prolific sewer. She made Chloe and Lucy layettes when they were born. Just beautiful. As her home and sewing room was packed up much of her material was saved for me! I couldn't believe it! A lot of it is suitable for baby clothes ie material for baby singlets that is a tube and you need no side seams. It is three large garbags full of fabric. I am already planning what to make. Piles of embroidered baby singlets for starters...

This is a tiny glimpse of the huge pile as I just don't have time to fold it all up yet.

THEN my friend Wendy (not blog Wendy another one!) messaged me she had found a double bed sheet set with pillowcases for $5 and would I like it? She thought of me as it was pink flowers...

I can see this as little nighties for Harper.

Sheeting is a great way to get miles of soft cottons very cheaply. Vintage prints make wonderful Pyjama pants, pillowcases, little dresses etc. I am also thinking hankies...

The hot weather was useful for one thing and that was I washed out doona and it was dry right through and back on the bed. I saw locally a shop that cleans and refreshes doonas for $60. (seems crazy) so I will count that as $60 saving ala Vicky Challenge. In the hot weather I find I can wash things like the doona, the underlay and pretty much anything. I can also dry anything ie herbs, tomatoes, apricots etc. About the only good things about the heat!

This week I visited Kath in the nursing home. I took pink tinsel to decorate her room and presents for now and for Christmas Day. My soaps gave me gifts for other residents and volunteers. It was a really nice afternoon and I felt very Christmassy after this. You don't have to do very much to make someone's day that is for sure as her excitement was much bigger than my effort. I am really glad I did that. There are a lot of really lonely people. It is terrible. While I was there I discovered someone else who has no one that visits or gives them anything. My uncle told me that the nursing home where he visits there are many people who have NEVER had a visit from a friend or relative. Never once.  So this is a potential easy thing to do to make a huge difference to someone.
Because Kath is a fair distance away I find I can write a letter every week where as I cannot visit every week. But she loves a letter. Letter writing is also a great way to help someone who is lonely, if visiting is difficult to do. Letter writing could be a whole ministry of it's own!

I also picked up hair dresser brochures and price lists from two hairdressers I walk straight past on the way in to the supermarket. These are so I have a quick way to work out what I save per year on hairdressing for The Vicky Challenge. Oh my goodness I have had a shock! I have to work it out but this is the kind of thing I will only have to figure out once and I can put in a monthly figure for all of 2016. Lets just say it is lucky I do my own hair! This already is a very revealing exercise in what I save on this alone! In your case it might not be hair services it might be something else but when you see what is being charged for things you do yourself without blinking it is a shock!

How did you build up your nest and save money this week?
I hope it was a great week and that the last weekend before Christmas is a lovely weekend for you.
I am trying to have a quieter time for the next few days... and stay cool.
xxx