Feather your Nest Friday, 15 December, 2017.

Here we are ten days from Christmas!
I had a busy week!  Also I am sill replying on Wednesdays post but I will get there! And I appreciate your comments.  These days the comments form a really important part of the blog.  The ideas that come in and just the helpfulness to each other is what keeps me going.  I feel I have company in everything I do as I think of everyone!

Some of the things I did this week to save,  get ahead and build up the home were:

On Saturday I actually had a free day so I decided to cook.  I made two big pots of meat spaghetti sauce.

These were 2 kilos of mince (ground beef) per pot (2.2 lbs = 1 kilo) and by the time I added onion, tomato, herbs etc this about doubled it.  I simmer these for over an hour at least.  Lots of oregano!

With this I made five lasagnas.

Because of not eating wheat I thought I would use zucchini for one layer and egg plant for another.  I sliced them thinly and fried them.  It worked really well.  Next time I will factor in that these don't absorb moisture like pasta layers do though.... but anyway it was good.

Also Andy thought he is dying since he keeps losing weight and can't work out why.  Finally he mentions this.  I said it is because you haven't eaten wheat in two months.  He never noticed lol 

I made up freezer packs of the meat sauce as well.   Two lasagnas were for the girls.  This all went into the freezer.

A local cafe charges $15 for a take away serve of lasagna or moussaka.   I have over 16 serves here so they would charge $240 for the lasagna alone!  I like knowing these things.   This is what many people pay!

I was given some free lemons.

I made baked egg custards (using up more eggs) in the crockpot.

The two plain little ones were meant for Harper.  I have these beautiful little tea cups!

At the supermarket I got two trays of steak at half price.  I bought a tray of sausages and when I got home I repackaged these into BBQ packs and froze them.  It gave me heaps of meals for the freezer.

We started picking tomatoes.  

Since this first few they have come on fast, probably due to hot weather.  We pick a bowl full everyday and I won't need to buy tomatoes for a long time! 

Now I am up to Wednesday when I went to see Hilde.  Boy did we have a fun day!  It started out really hot but cooled as the day went on.  We hit the discount grocery store, fruit and veggie market and op shops! 

The biggest purchase I made was scotch fillet steak in a giant piece which I then cut up myself. This came out at half Aldi price and Aldi is already about half Woolworths price.  It is beautiful.  Andy was just like !!! when he saw this.  However once cut up it gives us steak once a week for six weeks.  

I got a really big bag of bananas for 43c!  

This one is crazy.  I got my hair colour for 33c per box.  It is normally $20.  I never pay that as I always buy it on sale but never for 33c a box!  I got 9 boxes saving $177 on hair colour alone.   These days are so worth it. Shopping around is so worth it!  If this was my saving for the day I would have been happy but I had many more!  Yes I had driven a bit further to shop.  Yes I spent most of a day doing it.  But my savings for one days "work" were hundreds of dollars!   To me that is fun.  With a friend it is even more fun!  Hysterical laughter plus big savings = good day!

At the fruit and vegetable shops they gave us free branches of Holly.  I will use this to decorate food gifts this week.

I also got a beautiful brand of sausages at half price.

I found a top for myself that I love for $5.

A Jamie Oliver cookbook for Chloe for $4.

This crystal lamp base ... it is huge.  It was $5 also.  Now to find a top for it...

I love it! 

6 crystal glasses (Waterford crystal) for $10.

A book for my Dad on Andrea Bocelli saving was $28.

Also five hair products i.e.  volumiser spray from a fancy brand saving several dollars per bottle. 

When in the grocery store I asked questions about what do they get in after Christmas?  When is the best time to come?  This place gets things the supermarkets want to move on plus things wholesalers and catering companies are finished with i.e. turkeys after Christmas!  So a trip is planned after Christmas!

Also Hilde and I hatched a plan.  She will go to her local supermarkets right after Boxing Day.  And to Rite Price.  If she sees turkeys for under $4 a kilo she will grab them for me. She has giant freezers.  So this is great I can cover more ground and different days!

At the end of the day my car was loaded up and Andy helped me unload.  Amongst all this I had op shop things that are on Chloe's list for the wedding.   I had huge luck there too!  This is secret stuff as to not give away the theme and style of the wedding! 

I had several cold packs and an esky to keep everything cold.  

I was still putting stuff away the next day!

Then I was faced with a huge bag of ripe bananas and still eggs in the fridge.  So yesterday I started on banana muffins.   I made 60 before I made dinner.   

This also used up a batch of homemade vanilla yoghurt for extra goodness.

I made one dozen in a smaller size for Harper.  For extra appeal I added my little ballerina cake toppers.  😊

I am delivering these this afternoon just in time for afternoon tea.

Muffins are usually around $3 each in shops here. So I feel I turned my free eggs, cheap yoghurt and 43c bananas into a lot! 

The rest are going into the freezer. I have two dozen for Chloe and farmer Luke.  

After dinner I made a triple batch of coconut ice.  It is still setting in my biggest baking dish.  Later I will start on slicing it up and packaging.  It has turned out the palest ever milk shake pink.  💗  We are invited to a neighbours tonight for Christmas celebrations so I will take a plate of this. 

So that was my week so far.  It will give my Vicky Challenge a boost as it was a lot of savings!  The freezer really got a big boost.  I love having heaps of meals to turn to if we need them. 

I hope you had a good week.  How did you build up your home?  It might have been more of a case of how did you keep up with things as this is such a busy time.  I remember when the girls were at school how extra busy December was.  It was exhausting. 

Have a beautiful weekend! xxx