The Vicky Challenge. Using things you once threw away.

My Vicky Challenge last week went pretty well despite a few interruptions!
As it is the end of the month I also add in what I save by doing my own hair, nails and toes.  This adds up to so much that it shocks me every time!
I added in $300 for the amount of painting I did.
$100 for the packed lunches.
And $100 for a skirt I made over. Years ago I had a lovely chiffon skirt that had laces sewn along the pretty edges. It had been expensive but I wore it constantly until it basically died! When away on our trip I found a very similar skirt so I sat and stitched lace onto it like the other one. This skirt only cost me $4 and the lace was from my stash!  Plus it turned out so well! Now I am looking to do another one.
I wrote a whopping $890 into my savings book! So this month overall turned out better than I thought!

Rachel's Orange Jam or Marmalade which uses up the whole fruit!

This weeks saving theme is about utilising things we have preciously viewed as scraps and thrown out. Continuing on from my post on Saturday about Jes' e book 100+ DIY Projects to make with Fruit Scraps (found here  don't forget the discount for us from the 3rd to the 5th use the code word loyal reader ) (also note it is the 3rd in Australia hours before it is the 3rd in the USA)

This opened up a whole world for me and the whole subject of what else do we throw away that actually could be really valuable and lovely used in another way?

In my mind scraps are different from left overs. To me left overs are things I recognise as food but you end up with too many. I have a Use it Up series and articles like Never waste one slice of bread.  And I hope to add more.
Scraps are the things I didn't really recognise as food but as the bits that were unusable. Or I thought were unusable! And there are a lot of them! How many things do we buy where part of it is cut off and kept and the other part thrown away?  Like the stems from a bunch of parsley or the green ends of the leeks or the leaves of the celery etc. We all use vs throw out different things and this probably varies from one country to another as well.

But many of these things are packed with nutrition and flavour. So how can we use them?

Stock is an obvious one and this is a valuable thing to make and has so many uses. Stems and stalks, peelings, all kinds of left over odds and ends all add to a stock.

Another is bone broth. Recently Maria made Jes' bone broth then used it as the base for a beautiful soup. It would be so nourishing.  I really think this is one of the best things you can make with scraps. I made Harper so much baby food with this as the base. The Beauty of Bone Broth.

Patsy at A Working Pantry has so many ways she uses up every left over. This is part of a series that is just full of ideas.... This is why. Part 3.  Nothing is wasted. You will find a lot of ideas on building up your pantry for free or very inexpensively on Patsy's blog.

Mimi makes Limicello as a quite luxurious gift and this uses up all her lemon skins.  The recipe can be found here and this is something that can be made well ahead of Christmas and about now would work fine!

Ahh the baskets of lemons I have had and wasted the peel!

Well no more! Yes has you dry it for many uses and infuse it for others. 

I have infused vinegar with lemon peels and made lemon scented cleaners for my home.  However sadly this was about all I could come up with until now. In this instance I used the lemon vinegar as part of the miracle cleaner and filled lots of bottles.

Jennifer sent me a lovely link which used potato peels very well! I will let you check this out, its good! Thank you Jennifer!

Here's why you should never throw out potato peels.

I have noticed that many of the famous chefs are saving the fat/dripping from roast meats in the same way that our Grandparents did. Did your Grandparents do that? My Dad still does! Well, its back apparently. After falling from favour now its a thing! Duck fat is considered the greatest thing on earth in relation to baked potatoes and people buy expensive tins of it in specialty stores.

Roseanne makes her own Pectin.

This uses up citrus peels and the recipe is in Jes' e book.

She also uses strawberry hulls and makes strawberry vinegar.

How did your Vicky Challenge or savings go last week?
What do you make using things that many people just throw out?

I have had fun gathering the things I need for some of Jes' recipes. I have glycerine now ready and waiting. Most of the other ingredients I already have as they are basic things. But I am saving  up bottles and watching for them in op shops etc. I have plenty of large ones, I need more small ones. And more soap flakes.

Have a good week! It is raining here again and I am pretty sure this will re start up the flooding. As with most big storms then you have the aftermath and this is going to include crops wiped out, the market gardeners who produce our veggies are ruined. Apart from their livelihoods I know that means possible shortages and very expensive prices coming.

Bluey is having a major surgery on Thursday.  Jane and  Bluey both could do with prayers.
And so could Rachel. She had a nasty accident and badly hurt her eye and face. She is at home now after a visit to hospital.
There are a couple of other needs and worries and God knows who they are so if you would pray that would be lovely thank you. xxx