We saved money by:
I made a giant pot of Broccoli soup as Broccoli was on a big special.
I had a big cook up and made masses of spaghetti sauce, pasta bakes and lasagnes.
I gave one to Lucy and we cut it up into individual serve sizes and froze several dinners worth for her. This is so handy to have.
Andy had been needing drawers for his office. He looked in Officeworks and what he wanted started at over $100. On Tuesday he arrived home with perfect drawers that I thought he had bought but they were a road side find! So thats a saving!
I made all the work lunches.
We had a dripping tap and a leak where the water goes into the washing machine... Andy fixed both of those.
I used Coles vouchers to accumulate a lot of points towards a gift card. Also I learned to check each docket and this led to another 500 points. (Thanks Kaye!)
I shopped at Aldi. This was fantastic. I stocked up on basics that are much cheaper there. Also I added to my gift cupboard. They had gorgeous kitchen wares in Chloe's kitchen colours. Some was enamelware. Having bought some for Dad in a kitchen wares store I knew what amazing bargains they were. I was over the moon.
I treated myself to some pink enamelware. I got pie dishes and a baking tray.
Aldi had Caviar Power skin care on special. I had heard a lot about this. British magazines tested it and it beat very very expensive brands by miles. And I also had a personal recommendation that it is simply divine. And it was marked down!
Skin care can be very expensive and over the years I have tried so much! Because the girls were in the beauty industry I have been able to try some beautiful brands. Eventually I discovered a few things and these days I buy Loreal and Olay mostly. They are excellent and a fraction of the cost of the beauty department brands (and yet the same ingredients) So I decided to try this Caviar.
There is a mask, serum, scrub, foundation, day cream and night cream. All together this was 1/4 the price of one item that it compares to in the department store.
Well, it is the nicest thing I have ever tried! I just love it. And it only is in store once a year. Yesterday four people complimented me and one was super sleuth Lucy. She asked what had I done different? I looked much better apparently. You can rely on daughters I tell you!
I am totally hooked on this. I thought I would mention it as skin care can be a ridiculous expense. Like hair care and hair dressing these things can amount to thousands a year and do for lots of women. I know I save over $2000 a year on my hair. And more on doing my nails and pedicures etc. And something massive staying away from cosmetic counters. But now this! It is just beautiful and totally agrees with my skin. Very happy! Love Aldi!
I earned $125 from blog advertising. I am not writing my blog to make money but now and then I get a payment from ads. It helps. I want to say that when you watch you tube tutorials to always watch the ad first. The work that goes into making a tutorial is immense. The person gets a little payment if you watch the ad. Also if you like them click like and follow them. That supports them.
On blogs you like watch for ways to support them. If I go to a blog I love I click on an ad that might appeal to me as I know this helps them get some income. And if I want to order something from Amazon I would do it via A Working Pantry as this also gives them a small payment. You can support blogs without any cost to you. You have no idea how much this helps them.
If you do not click like, follow or comment the person has no idea you exist or even care. They are no cost ways of helping. Thank you to everyone who follows, likes on FB or shares posts, forwards posts, clicks on ads, pins on pinterest and adds links to their own blogs. Thank you.
I gave myself a hair cut and deep conditioning treatment.
I built up the home, feathered my nest and got ahead by:
Adding meals to the freezer.
Helping the girls with meals.
Making little outfits for Harper and pretty socks.
I added to the pantry with a little battery operated radio for $5 that I found on a mark down table. A battery operated radio is an absolute necessity in a crisis if the power is out. That is how you know what is going on and what to do. This is a spare for us.
Also I added to my plastic tubs several items including powdered milk.
I hope you had a very good week! How did you save money and build up your home?
Have a lovely weekend! xxx
Dear Annabel...what a great week. I am so thrilled that you can now access Aldi, because as you are finding, their basics AND their luxuries beat most other comparable items hands down! Your little bits of frippery on Harpers clothing are so sweet and heirlooms in the making, I'm sure. And the meals set aside are so valuable as we find each and every week when we are busy or sick. My week was productive with money saved by making dance costumes (yes again!), many pillowcases added to the gift pile in all sorts of patterns and colours, some rebatched soap made with Lux Flakes for gifting, jars recycled with crystal knobs on top for gifting and storage, and a new way of doing my nails discovered with a product called Jamberry...do you know it? My daughter-in-law is now a consultant and we all have professional looking nail wraps, which last two weeks, for around $11!!! Very happy me! I'm so looking forward to a quieter week next week as it has been months since I've had a chance to just potter and my garden needs me ;-) Lots of love, Mimi xxx
ReplyDeleteThe lasagne is making me hungry! Waiting for Aldi's to come to San Diego....the makeup foundation looks lovely.
ReplyDeleteDear Mary,
DeleteThan you, I love that lasagne freezes so well. We only recently got Aldi. It has revolutionised things around here and they have things I never even thought of that amaze me. It is saving us close to 50%. Have a lovely weekend! Love Annabel.xxx
Another great week draws to a close Annabel. You must feel very satisfied with the wonderful things you make and do. I know when I do something I get a great feeling that comes from making it yourself etc. Agree with Mary. The lasagna looks superb.
ReplyDeleteI must go look in your cooking section and see what soup recipes you have on there. I have got pumpkin and carrot soup cooking in the thermomix whilst I read your blog and have a look see. I noticed you mentioned one good thing by Jillee somewhere and I had a look at hers today, very informative too.
Thank you Annabel for your inspiration and knowledge. Fi xx
Dear Fiona,
DeleteI love soups and love making stock. And big quantities. My big crock pot holds a lot and I fill it to the brim. It all goes! But I am largely a cheat. Most of the time I fill with veggies, onion herbs etc and add packet of chicken soup and blend or a tin of cream of chicken soup. It is an instant way to make it fantastic so thats my admission. With chicken soup I often use a chicken breast and then the beans, onion, garlic, bayleaf, herbs, veggies etc and let that simmer all day and add baby pasta at the end... it becomes so thick and yum. It is very medicinal I think. Anyway Im pretty basic and I just go by taste and thats my lunches and I give Chloe tons of it.
The window cleaning method and cleaning methods on One good thing by Jillie are fantastic. Swear by them.
Have a good weekend Fiona! With lots of love, Annabel.xxx
Goodness me Annabel, you get some good roadside finds. We don't have that here. I love the way you are embellishing Harper's clothes. So pretty! I bought a few things on sale this week.mi very rarely pay full price. I must check out ALDI as I saw their catalogue the other day. They do sell out fast though but we do have three stores here. Have a lovely weekend.
ReplyDeleteDear Nanna Chel, When we see an ad from Harvey Norman for a new TV or whatever we say we wonder how long before that will be on the side of the road? And we have laughed as its not long! I just wait! lol
DeleteI got to Adli in the afternoon of the same day the enamelware come out. I am so pleased though and the skin care was just luck. It will be easier when we have a local store which I can see being built about five minutes away.
Have a good weekend! The hills here have flood warnings so more rain! With love, Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel can you send some of that rain our way please?
ReplyDeleteI have found with Aldi that there are stores that sell out of certain things quite fast and others that still have things a few weeks later. It really depends on the location of the store and the customer base.
Monday I picked up some white jugs and saucers from Aldi, these were on sale last week while I was in Melbourne and I really did not expect to get them - just lucky. They will go with the rest of my white serving ware. Just need some salt and pepper shakers now.
This week I have kept my eye on the progress of the rental bathroom - we had a bit of a problem show up so hopefully everything will be back on track next week.
My freezers are just about full - I am developing a leaning towards easy basic recipes. This week I cooked up some diced beef in the slow cooker to make 4 batches of my brown stew recipe. I will add various things to this base recipe to change it up even though my husband likes stew.
I have been investigating The Pioneer Woman's recipes - she has some that I know will appeal to my husband. I tried her pancake recipe using yogurt the other week - so easy and now I have a reason to by marked down yogurt. I have some Greek yogurt and mixed berry yogurt in the freezer. We do not usually have dessert but these pancakes might just change that.
I have finished knitting a jumper for the charity group that I donate to - being dark brown it has to wait until the morning before I sew it together.
I love enamel ware but cannot justify replacing my glass baking dishes with it at the moment. I'll be patient and when I need to replace anything I will have to wait until Aldi have it on sale again.
Love the lasagna - I have quite a bit of milk to be used up so apart from makings some impossible pies spinach and fetta and egg and bacon) I can see a lasagna or two being made as well.
This week has been about cooking up what was here when I returned home - pumpkin soup is in the freezer. Zucchini soup has been for my evening meal.
My husband is away for another week but I cannot see any more space being created in the freezer. What room I create I tend to fill up with something else.
Have a great weekend everyone. I have a trip to Spotlight to make tomorrow - the pattern I want to knit needs some knitting needles that I do not have - who would have thought that?
Lynette
XXXXX
Dear Lynette, I have only been in two Aldis and the difference between just these two is significant. One is much better than the other and one had the skin care and the other didn't too. No I know which one I will stick to until ours is built and even then it will have to be as good or better than the one I like.
DeleteIt was great about the plain white times you got! They are classic and lovely.
Yes lasagne uses up heaps of milk! Anything with a white sauce or cheese sauce. Also when I have milk to use asap I make baked custard. I love it. Or baked rice custard. It also buys you a few days once cooked. I know you have yoghurt too... if it has a flavour I use it in muffins (as I know you do) if it is the plain it is good for that yoghurt/flour pizza bases. I find it fine to use half yoghurt and half milk. The base is more pressed into the tin than rolled but it is really good pizza base.
I am surprised you need another size knitting needle! Well they will add to your collection. Well done on the charity jumper.
Have a lovely weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
Still very dry and quite warm, just shy of hot, during the day. Some rain would be simply delicious.
ReplyDeleteThis week the nester needed a bit of looking after rather than the nest. Things have been put in place and hopefully we are now heading in a more positive direction healthwise.
I decided that winter is a few days away and we are surely going to have some cool weather soon. I put the quilt on the line to air and washed the cover. I've given the bedroom a bit of a make over by putting some items away and getting out others. All the wooden venetian blinds have been given a good clean. The house is now ready for winter (if it ever gets here).
I was in Big W today and found a pair of white baby socks with some lace and ribbon edging. They were $10/pair. Oh my goodness! You best add that to your Vicky Challenge Annabel.
Our neighbours are very happy with the gate Bluey made between our properties. Today they gifted us some fresh caught fish, a bucket of oranges off their tree and a pumpkin out of their garden as a thank you. Guess what we're having for dinner?
Life is good.
Dear Jane,
DeleteI cannot imagine the warmth you are having. We have hit cold evenings and nights. Like shivering!
I hope you are ok... I am assuming you are the nester.... so look after yourself.
Thanks for the price comparisons for me re the socks. I am thinking of stitching on ribbon too for a ribbon frilly sock. My daughter said they are expensive but she loves them hence my firs attempt with crochet. Now I am thinking of a frilly edge and one little grub rose on the outer side.
I love your nice arrangement with your neighbours. The gate was extremely professional so they should be very happy! All the fresh fish and produce is wonderful. That was a good week! With love, Annabel.xxx
Hi Annabel!
ReplyDeleteYum!! I love pasta! You and Fiona should be pleased that food cannot be transferred through the internet. Lasagna, cannelloni, spaghetti, ravioli ..... These are special meals for me!! Keep up the good cooking, both of you!!!!!
Pink enamel ware for the kitchen sounds sweet! Oh, and by the way, I recommend testing your little radio, if you haven't already. We've been that way before. Some work and some don't!
I still love your crochet frills on the socks. It is no wonder Aussies use the word "singlet". It keeps things simple!
Did Andy learn about roadside finds from you?!! It's funny, and good!!
Yes, I've been feathering our nest this week, only the start of the week seems like so long ago now!! The weather is starting to cool again, and we had rain last night. It has been such a dry season for us. I am turning my thoughts to starting the garden again. The bush turkey has gone from my fenced area. I might just disregard the ticks, which are bad in an adjacent area. I can just dig it over now, and wait for more rain. The weeding is already done.
The other day, I unpacked, for the first time, a box of white soup mugs and clear drinking glasses! They came from an old friend nearly ten years ago! My husband doesn't know why we would need them; aren't our enamelled cups so useful?!! (Now pink enamelled cups would be nice!!)
I had good reason to visit op shops. I was looking for a particular size of knitting needles and, with a little rummaging, collected a set of four double pointed needles, as required. There was a needle gauge in the bottom of the jar, so I used that and then bought it, too!! This was so handy, in a small, nearby town. That pleased me!!
But wait. There's more!! We had reason to visit the same town again, and I hadn't finished looking at the two op shops there. I went looking for particular wools and fabrics. My gradual buildup of small savings was healthy, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending a portion of it!! The highlight is an $18 queen size shabby chic quilt (in good condition) composed of lovely pink cotton fabrics, with scalloped edges. There are some pink little roses and lots of pink stripes. I love it!! I haven't figured out what this particular quilt would be worth new, but I reckon it is a fair bit more than what I paid. There were a few smaller items, like a $2.50 king size flannelette sheet in browns that would be suitable for men's pyjamas. A largish rectangular crochet doily was $1.50. My husband didn't know what I could use that for, so he's learning, too!! For $1, I purchased a long, skinny, rectangular timber frame with nails all along it. (My husband reckons the hardware fixings, alone, were worth it!) We used frames like these, as children, to make yarn mats. Op shopping sure can be fun, and oh so economical!!!!! It's great for building up one's home, alongside saving money!
Is that enough for starters?!! (We sure have been busy, and loving it!!)
With warm regards,
Rachel Holt
Dear Rachel,
DeleteAndy now knows what to watch for road side wise. One time he asked a lady if he could take an item for his wife. She said "Your wife won't want that!" But he thought I really would. So he stuck to his guns and brought it home. It was a wrought iron bakers stand! He was right! Yes I loved it! But this woman was sure his was up the creek. lol
You could weave a mat from your frame! Remember when I was cutting up all those stretch knit fabrics into strips? That could be done with any discarded fabrics to make a woven mat. I love it!
The soup cups and drinking glasses are certainly useful. I have also used unwanted drinking glasses as jam jars. Same thing really...
The knitting needles were also a great find!
I was so glad too that you are enjoying vanilla. Nothing smells so lovely as vanilla to me. I adore baked egg custard or creme caramel purely for the silky texture and the vanilla factor. And a used pice of vanilla still gives flavour for a long time.
The Shabby Chic quilt has me dreaming! What a find! Also the flannelette sheet of soft material, very useful.
What a good week Rachel! I get to go to two op shops on Monday! they are wonderful. You never know what you will find and you had a fabulous day with yours. Makes the week really!
Have a great weekend. With love, Annabel.xxxx
Hah, that's an inspiring thought Rachel, transferring food by the internet. If that was possible, I would have a standing order with Annabel for soups and all the tasty treats she makes. You got some great things in the op shops.
DeleteBefore shopping at the home improvement store for our bathroom renovation we purchased gift cards from the grocery store who gives fuel rewards. We were stopping at the grocery anyway and this easy step gave us 60 cents off 20 gallons of gas. Used leftover materials from our new kitchen counters for the bathroom counter.
ReplyDeletePacked lunches and cooked most meals at home. Fertilized my tomatoes with egg shells and coffee grounds. Kitchen scraps get composted for free homemade compost which is quite expensive to buy.
Have a good weekend all! We get to travel to see three of our grandchildren!
Dear Lana,
DeleteThat was a very productive week and I think probably a big saving on the bathroom counter.
Have a lovely time seeing your Grandchildren! So far I am having a baking weekend! With love, Annabel.xxx
Oh, how good that lasagne looks!! And my post-op diet has me now eating puréed foods! 😕 But, I'm doing well and getting healthier!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember if I mentioned the 20 pounds of free peppers, apples and an onion that I got just by asking our grocer if those discards (they were in a rolling waste can) could be taken to compost with. There was 1 bell pepper that had a really soft spot. I washed it, cut out the bad section and chopped up and froze the rest! I froze 10 quart bags of chopped red, green, yellow and orange, bell peppers in all. I used 4 other peppers in freezer meals- beef pepper steak, beef & broccoli and two others! Only two brown spots out of all 12 of the apples that were in the box! Cut those spots out and made apple pecan cake for lunches, 2 dozen apple muffins for breakfasts (I froze 1 dozen) and we've been enjoying apples to munch on! The single onion in the box was large but not round--more flattened. I think that it was tossed in because it didn't "look" as pretty as the others! Worked well well I tossed it into one of our dinner recipes though! 😋
Because of Memorial Day weekend here in the States, all thing relating to outside BBQing are on sale! Lots of loss leaders! Corn was 10 cents an ear, so I bought 2 boxes- 8 dozen ears in all and have been blanching, chilling in ice water and cutting off the cob, vacuum sealing and freezing! The price will never go below that price and this will be the only time it will be that low during the year! No I won't have to buy corn for the year! This has saved me a lot compared to buying packages of frozen corn from the store!
I also bought ground beef for $1.99/pound, which, sadly, is the best price I've seen on that for quite a while. I bought 20 pounds that I made and froze into patties for the BBQ, cooked up some for tossing into pasta sauces and other meals! That was a nice savings too!
Ketchup was on sale too and so, since we were on on last bottle and I was waiting for this sale, I bought a dozen big bottles! I love seeing that things are being used and rotated in my pantry!
I find I am shopping at the store less and less- only when there is a loss leader item that we use so that I can replenish my pantry! That, to me, is the freedom that having a well-stocked pantry gives me!!
Our minivan is about to die, according to our mechanic. It has lived a good long life and served us well! So we started looking through the ads on Craigslist here in our capital city to find a new (to us) replacement. Hubby and I have devised a strategy that we always use to find the best value and price. When we call to enquire, we say that we are calling about their vehicle for sale. If they say-"Which one?" , we say never mind. We look for private party sales, not dealers. We ask how long they've owned the car. If it's less than 3 years, we walk away. We are looking for a car that has been owned and lived by someone for a long time- hopefully original owner! Smoked in? Off our list! Number of miles? We check with blue book for comparable pricing as well as reviews on that particular make and model for that year! We also look at the location of the seller. If they live a distance from our capital city, the price usually will reflect that, since fewer people are willing to drive farther to look!
Doing that, we just bought an original owner 2005 minivan with the stow and go seats my husband wanted, about 50 miles from our capital city, which was taken care of and well maintained all these years for just $1000! We are thrilled, our mechanic is doing the $200 worth of little things that the owner told us it might need! This was a huge savings over it's normal used sales price! It is part of our pantry since we use it to haul our free pallets and building materials so we don't need to rent a truck!
We also sold another $25 in planter boxes and have an order for 20 specialty pallet cutouts!
What a wonderful week!
Dear Gardenpat, Hopefully soon you will be able to move on to soft foods and then something like lasagne will qualify as it is soft and easy to manage.
DeleteYou have had really wonderful fruit and veggie savings plus stocking up!
Well doen on your new mini van! I hope you get many years of great servive from it. Your efforts and looking really paid off!
That really was a big week!
I am very happy about your planter boxes too. I think they are really lovely especially using the recycled wood.
I hope you are having a great weekend! I have had a baking day today. With much love, Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteThank you for all of this information! I learned a lot and now know I should always watch the ad on tutorials, and will pay attention to ads on blogs I visit. I love reading of your accomplishments and still adore the socks! I second Jane, you should totally add those to your Vicky challenge totals.
This week was extremely busy, as it was the end of the school year. This past week did not see much feathering at home as there was busyness each day at school and events. My children had their end of the year awards assembly, the twins both had Principal's List for straight A's all year and received certificates. My nephew got one as well for Honor Roll (A's and B's), so my sister and I were there waving like lunatics and taking photos, it was great! My in-laws also attended, they are wonderful people. Our middle-school boy was promoted from 8th grade to high school on Wednesday night. This was REALLY an awesome accomplishment with lots of tears, as he is autistic and at one time was completely non-verbal. We are so very proud of him! Again, all of the family, lots of pictures and love. End of the year party for the twins in both of their classes, I am a homeroom mom in my son's class this year. I took photos of each of the 27 children in his class throughout the school year and had them printed. Then at the party, they all got their own 8"x8" scrapbook page along with their photo, stickers, colored pens, etc and each kid made their own special page that I inserted into protective sleeves of an 8"x8" scrapbook for the teacher. The kids did an incredible job with the sentiments they wrote to her as well as all of the decorating, etc. We had leftover money in our class fund (which is miraculous really) that we gifted in cash to our teacher. We loved doing that because good teachers here work very hard and don't earn nearly what they should in my opinion. So.Much.Fun! Outside of all of that, the home stayed nice as we were only here to sleep and shower it seems! Lots of quick home meals, soup from the freezer, and sandwiches kept us going. Today I am happy to catch up at home. Laundry, some cooking, sweeping, dusting, and two bathrooms to tidy. The kids have already done their chores for the morning, I'd say we are in good order for now! Lots of family and relationship building this week, which is all wonderful of course.
A word to Fi-a great soup that freezes incredibly well and is filling is by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, called White Chicken Chili. I double it when I make it then refrigerate it for one day for the flavors to condense. Then I pour it into quart size freezer bags and store. Recipe is online and YUM!!!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Thank you as always Annabel for this place to meet!
Love,
Colette xxx
Dear Colette,
DeleteWhat a massive week! I remember end of school year (for us in December) and "speech night" or "presentation night" and it was all so busy. And I only had two students!
Well done to you and the children on all the achievements. The twins were outstanding and I think the massive progress of your son and his growth is very inspiring and wonderful! Also it was great how the whole family supported everyone and celebrated.
Well yes in a week like this other things have to wait a bit but I think special occasions and celebrations are really important. And to reflect on the year.
I also love your photos and pages for all the students and the lovely kindness and appreciation shown to the teacher. It sounds like you have a very good school and teacher which is a huge blessing. I am sure she was really touched and grateful.
Now I am off to look up that soup! I will try it as it must be good if you say so and have made it so much.
Have a great weekend and new week. Much love, Annabel.xxx
Looks like everyone has had a great week! Your embroidery is just so cute and I love the idea of pink enamelware. We are headed to the city tomorrow for some needed shopping, so who knows what deals we may end up getting!?
ReplyDeleteThis week I feathered our nest by:
Making ricotta, cream cheese, and yogurt, and then frantically trying to use up all the whey in bread baking, oatmeal soaking, etc. If anyone has a great use for LOTS of whey, I'd love to hear it!
The kids went for an optometrist appointment in town, so I spent the afternoon at the sewing machine and whipped up a pair of shorts for each of them out of material from my stash (though I did have to send hubby to the fabric store on the way home for $1's worth of elastic for the waist).
Have been decluttering like mad, and will be taking it to the Sally Ann tomorrow. Still feels like we've hardly made a dent!
Did the baking, hung the laundry, made all meals, as usual. Also had a serious rethink with the budget, which has to happen a few times a year.
Sold a couple dozen eggs and a loaf of bread. Seems like there must have been more, but I can't think of it at the moment. Enough to keep me busy, anyway! :)
Have a great weekend, everyone!
xx Jen in NS
Jen, you made me laugh! My initial thought, in reading your comment, was that your young goats were seeing the optometrist! Obviously, that was not the case!! Is it goats' milk that you use for cream cheese? Do you use a bought culture? It's wonderful having you "on the line" all the way from Nova Scotia! There is so much to learn!! Thank you!
DeleteRegards, Rachel Holt
That cracks me up, Rachel...I never thought about the mixing up of "kids" and "kids", but I guess I followed cheese (yes, made with goat's milk) with the optometrist. :) I did use bought culture this time around, but to tell you the truth, the cream cheese turned out more like cottage cheese. I have better luck making chevre from goat buttermilk (for the culture) and then using that as "cream cheese". Oh, well...the great thing about making cheese is that you might not end up with exactly the cheese you meant to make, but it's definitely edible and tasty no matter what! :) xx Jen.
DeleteDear Jen, I hope your trip to town was good!
DeleteI did laugh as the kids going to the optometrist could have been either type of kids but it is just funnier thinking of baby goats wearing glasses somehow!
A website called Don't waste the crumbs has a post called 36 ways to use Whey. It includes making pizza bases... and I thought it was pretty interesting. I hope you might find something there.
With all the decluttering could the kids have a garage sale or a car boot sale or something as I fund they help big time with things like this if there is pocket money to be made! (human kids :) not goat kids!)
Have a great new week Jen, With love Annabellxxx
Just wanted to say thanks for the 36 ways to use whey! I will definitely try some of those! And yes, good idea for a garage sale. We've sold some things on line, but now that the weather is nicer, it's definitely yard/garage sale time!
DeletexxJen
I've had a fairly busy week. With an almost two year old in the house there is always some task that is added to almost every moment and even though Mama is very good at keeping up with him there's a little extra work for Gramma in having him in the house. Bess (Dear DIL) and I planned meals together on Monday and then shopped together on Tuesday. She bought food for meals she'd planned and I bought food for meals I'd planned plus produce for all meals. It's been fun dividing the labor in the kitchen. I've had opportunity this week to try three new recipes! Inspiration was just what I needed. I posted a list of my other savings, building up activities here:
ReplyDeletehttp://bluehousejournal.blogspot.com/2016/05/my-frugal-week-present-savings.html
Dear Terri,
DeleteI can imagine life with a toddler as my Granddaughter is only one but it is pretty well full on all day! Well, except when they are asleep!
Well done on working out shopping and meals together with your DIL. It would be a big adjustment. This must be such a big help to them.
Have a great weekend and new week Terri. With love, Annabel.xxx
Oh yum look at that lasagne! Delicious! I love Harper's pretty socks. I wish we had Aldi here. That skincare/make up looks excellent. I will have to try L'Oreal. I can't really afford to buy expensive brand names anymore. I never knew about how to help blogs. Now I know! Plus the ads with the YouTube tutorials. All these blogs and tutorials help me so much, so it's yo know how to give back. I have been making up a soup each week. I hope to make a broccoli one and a big rice slice this coming week. We have been enjoying the cooler weather at the beach. Such a nice place to be. I also donated a few bag of clothes to the op shop. I continue to be on the lookout for some new shoes- nude sandals. Hopefully, they turn up. I hope to make a heap of tissue flowers to put on presents in the next coming weeks. Lots of love, Bridge
ReplyDeleteDear Bridge,
DeleteBoreal is really nice and made by Lancome. Its basically all the same in less fabulous packaging as far as I am told. It is absolutely not necessary to pay a lot to have lovely skin care. I hope Aldi comes up there as really it is amazing.
Flowers for your parcels will be lovely! At Lucys engagement party we made loads of giant pom pom type flowers from tissue paper. they looked so nice and were easy (once I'd made one!) and I love to make the crepe paper roses. I have seen giant roses too on pinterest.... I need an excuse to try those. Maybe for Harpers room?
I am not are how cool it gets there. We are having really cold nights but I think your winter is much milder than ours. If you can still go to the beach then Im saying yes. This week if we went to the beach we would be blown to Tasmania!
Have a lovely weekend Bridge, With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteYou had another great week! Your lasagna looks delicious.
Harper's socks are so cute. Jane commented that they are expensive in the stores and I believe it. My husband has an interview on Tuesday (for his dream job!) so we took a trip to the city to buy him the proper clothes. We are counting this as an investment as this is a very important interview and the clothes can be worn for other things like weddings, funerals, etc. Anyway, while he was shopping for his clothes, I wandered into the women's department to have a look around. One of the things that caught my eye was leggings (I wear them under my skirt in the winter) with lace trim. I looked at the price tag and screamed (inwardly) and ran away! They were 100 dollars per pair! And the boot socks with lace trim were 15 dollars per pair! I can just sew lace onto the pairs I already have, I thought to myself, as I remembered why I prefer thrift stores to department stores!
This week we also had a friend visit from Arizona. Though he didn't stay with us, we spent a lot of time visiting with him, which was nice.
On quieter days, I worked on the mountain of clothes in the spare bedroom that needed to be ironed, mended, altered, and sorted. Today I finished and I can see the bed again! It was a big task that I put off for far too long. Now I have a clean bed and a full closet. Some of the clothes that we no longer wear or that were given to us but don't fit were cut up for fabric scraps. It feels like I went shopping, actually!
Tomorrow will be spent at the ranch. I haven't been all week, so I will have lots of laundry to do. That will be good, though, because it gives me more time to clean while I'm there.
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!
With love, Kelsey
PS. As a funny side note, I had to write the word "dollar" above because I could not find the symbol for it in my phone. I have been looking everywhere for it for TWO days but to no avail. Turns out, it's not in my phone because the language is set to "British English" instead of "American English" lol! That would explain the pound symbol and why autocorrect keeps adding u's to my words! I'm laughing at myself lol!
Too funny about the dollar sign missing on your phone! $100 for leggings!!??!! I obviously don't shop much. Just wanted to say good luck: Hope your husband gets the job!
DeletexxJen in NS
Dear Kelsey,
DeleteI think it is a very good idea to have the right clothes for an important interview. And that is a good investment. I am thinking of this and hoping it goes well!
I have seen leggings with a lace edge which I like very much. But $100!? Well you could sit and stitch lace around plain leggings and do the exact same thing. And yes the socks as well. That would be a really nice little project and sometimes at thrift stores you can get lovely laces too. Even moving the lace from one item to sew onto another one can be worth it for lovely lace.
Well done on all the sorting and mending! Have a greta week Kelsey, with love Annabel.xxx
Thank you Jen and Annabel! We are very hopeful!
DeleteLove, Kelsey
As always, your photos are lovely Annabel. I've been busy this week organising a new kitchen. It's so much fun picking things out.
ReplyDeleteHere's what else I did this week -
* Repaired a pair of Winter boots. The soles were coming away from the upper. So I used shoe glue to fix them. I think they will last this year and next.
* I went to the Cheapskates card making day and made 5 cards using what I had on hand. I also gratefully received from the swap table - two mini stainless steel bowls I can use for cat food, card embellishments, card stock, ribbons and Easter bags. I also received a card making magazine with free stamps and a card making brochure.
* Gratefully accepted some stickers someone left for me at church. Thankyou. They will be put to good use on my cards.
* Lined both bathroom bins with bread bags.
* Filled up my car with petrol at $1.08 per litre at a United petrol station. At the moment they are about 7 cents a litre cheaper than the bigger petrol stations.
* Dried the clothes on clothes horses over the ducted heating vents. Only the bed sheets were put into the dryer.
* Used a thermos to store boiling water in during the day.
* Tried to keep to the two light rule whenever possible.
* Fed the compost bin with kitchen scraps and fed the chooks some slightly old watermelon.
* Gratefully received more silverbeet from my Dad.
* Made a batch of dried seasoned bread crumbs.
* Cut up school notices and other used photo copy paper to use as note paper on my mini magnetic clip board.
* Gratefully received a fuel docket in the mail. Thankyou Tania.
* Found two more standby lights to turn off. They were in the girl's bedrooms and I don't think they've noticed.
* Gratefully received an envelope of card making stickers from my Cheapskate friend Chelsea. Thankyou.
Dear Wendy,
DeleteWell done on your week! I avery happy for you about your new kitchen! It is fun and a big job picking things out. We got most of our components from IKEA and it turned out beautifully, this is two years ago almost now. I really love it and it made life much better!
Have a good week, with love Annabel.xxx