Feather your Nest Friday. 7th April, 2017.

What a week! It wasn't all good.  To get the bad things out of the way first, Andy lost his job Tuesday. He went to work at 8 am and was home at 9:30.  He was upset.  Now,  it did not come as a huge surprise but we were shocked anyway.  Weeks ago we started seeing the writing on the wall and knew this company was not paying it's bills and it's supplier  stopped supplying them... and other obvious ominous signs.... but still it caught us off guard on Tuesday.

It is a blow and a problem but we do not have all our eggs in one basket and Andy has his drafting, designs and other skills and regular clients who use these.  So we just have to fill a gap.  

He is using his time well and when not applying for jobs he is getting on with what needs doing around the place which includes working on the bathroom.  On Saturday we pulled out the old spa bath in our bathroom as the first step to a big makeover.  With a giant hole in the bathroom we are kind of committed to continuing now.  

So as cheer up therapy here is my new bath...

It is sitting in the office right now! In fact we have a toilet in the lounge room, a vanity on order,  a shower in the van...    Tomorrow we get on to the next step which is levelling the floor space where we took out the spa.  This was old, not working and huge.  I am going to have space for a beautiful set of shelves or a cabinet for all my towels and bathroom things...  which will be lovely! 

Some of they ways I built up my home this week include:

Mum had given me bananas. I had frozen them and it was the boys fishing weekend so I defrosted them and made a big banana cake.

Everyone loves this cake. I make my cakes in giant slabs in my biggest baking pan.  That way I can cut it up and freeze a lot for work lunches etc.

I also made my sour dough into pizza bases and several pizzas.  This made dinner,  lunch box fillers, and accompanied the cake on the fishing trip. Pizza is still one of my best use-it-up recipes.  

This all worked out well as the boys returned with fish and Andy actually had fish and chips for dinner! 

Plus this day is a beautiful relaxing day that they enjoy and it all costs very little.

I finally cooked my Quinces. They start out hard with a whitish/yellowish colour flesh. They end up ruby pink.  I used some as stewed fruit and then I made three crumbles. I already had crumbs mixture in the fridge I made when I had peaches. It used up random cereals, crumbs, nuts etc. to make a big supply.

Well, it worked out to be yum! 

I made three so two will go in the freezer. 

One of the best things of the week was our local  Aldi opened!  I didn't go on the first day as I don't like crowds. But I went on the second day!  It is just a few minutes away and will now be my weekly supermarket.   I found that it is a really big store and it had extra special buys.  

This is a game changer for us!  Unless our other local supermarkets respond with some huge specials they won't be seeing me again. Thanks to Cath Armstrong from  The Cheapskates Club and Wendy I know how to cut my grocery bill in half with Aldi.  Best thing ever!  

I haven't figured out my Vicky Challenge savings yet but it will be a fairly reasonable amount so I am glad of that.

We hare having a burst of warm weather so the clothes line is covered in linen.  And Andy has made my new clothesline with he wrought iron corners and it is all painted.  Now it just has to be put up! It is going to be so beautiful!

I have to show you a picture. Chloe has been bottle feeding three lambs. They love her.  If she is on the phone in the house they can hear her talking and come to that window.  Or they wait for her at the back door...

Yep, she is loved! Her chooks are also laying and she can let them out and they put themselves back to bed at night. This means they have a huge area to free range in the day. They are having the best fun time!

 How did you build up your home, feather your nest and get ahead this week?

Have a wonderful weekend! xxx