The Week that Was

Marigolds in the veggie garden, left from last summer, a nice spot of early spring colour

Monday was a work at home day last week. I didn't go out, so I didn't spend any money or fuel, a real no-cost day.

Shopping lists, inventories and stockpile lists have been worked on again this week. They are almost to the point where I'm confident with the numbers and know exactly how much of each thing we use each week, to get a final quantity for a year.

Tuesday was another stay-at-home day. I spent the day working on the new website, getting ready to move the members database over to the new site. To say I'm nervous is an understatement, I'm terrified. This is a really big move and so much can go wrong (at least in my imagination, I've been told it will be seamless and painless). Time will tell! Either that or my instantly snow white head of hair (it really is that stressful).

Bushy Park fruit orchard has had oranges for 29 cents a kilo this week so I bought 30 kilos. Some are in the bottom of the fridge, they'll keep for a long time if they are kept cold, for eating. Some I've processed for orange cake and marmalade and some I've used to make more marmalade for the Christmas hampers. I've been putting the skins from the fruit we've been eating into vinegar to make orange scented vinegar cleaner.

Wednesday I had a film crew here for the morning. The guys were in fits checking out the pantry and shelves. The five dozen cans of baked beans had them in hysterics - men! They were also a little stunned at the potatoes too. I did explain I'd bought them for 20 cents a kilo so stocked up but I think it was the quantity they were looking at more than anything else, that was odd. I guess 60 kilos of potatoes is a lot for most households.

Stocked up on Dove soap and Lynx deodorant on sale at IGA. Both were less than half the regular price, so big savings.

The washing was dried by the fire again.

All our meals have been cooked from scratch, using food from the pantry and freezer. I keep using food from the freezer but it doesn't seem to be getting any emptier!

I spent some time in the garden, weeding and digging in more compost Wayne spread for me.

Most of our summer veggie seeds have been planted and the starts are in a blanket bag hot house until they are ready to transplant into the garden.

To better organise the stockpile storage some cupboards in the kitchen were emptied and tidied. Some kitchen things I don't use were taken to the op shop.  I didn't think I was a kitchen gadget hoarder but obviously I was, the tidying up gave me two empty cupboards. Gone are cups and saucers, some glasses we've never used (and I have no idea where they came from), a couple of really ugly bud vases (I mean really, really, really ugly - that's why they were in the cupboard), some odd plates and some containers I only used if I had to because I didn't like the way they sealed.  This cupboard now stores tea bags, coffee, coffee pods and cocoa, freeing up space in the pantry and laundry cupboard.

AJ has an interview for his dream job and he asked for help buying a new suit. Off to the op shops we went but didn't find anything that would fit him. We were both disappointed, then we went to Lowes and for $79 he has a really lovely suit, that fits him perfectly and looks great. Fits perfectly is especially great, it means I don't need to do any alternations, which I probably would have done if we'd found one at the op shop. Best of all he can wear one of Wayne's shirts with a matching tie and handkerchief with it. If he gets the job he won't be in a suit and tie every day so we'll wait to see if we need to buy shirts and ties and we'll try the op shops first, I know we'll be able to get plenty of ties for no more than $2 each.

Picked and juiced limes and picked mandarins for eating off the fruit trees. These trees have well and truly paid for themselves already, from now on each piece of fruit is a freebie!

Filled the car up with petrol when it was down to $111.9 at Woolworths. I had a discount on my rewards card to use up before it expired.

I'm making Wayne a new zip front jacket for Father's Day using micro fleece from the fabric stash and a pattern I already had. I've had to adjust the pattern to take the zipper instead buttons, new patterns are just too expensive. I've been doing it in drips and drops while he's at work so it's a surprise for him.

While the sewing machine was out I made a new table topper for the lamp table in the lounge room, using some of the damask from the fabric stash. I backed it with a little iron-on Vilene to give them a little body.

I've cut out eight shoe bags from some lemon damask scraps in the fabric stash. I have perle cotton to make the ties for them, so they'll be no cost gifts for Christmas.

Yesterday was my day off. I don't work on Saturdays, nor do I do any non-essential housework or garden work. We often have visitors for lunch and tea on Saturdays, but yesterday it was just the family so I was going to spread out my card making supplies and happily spend four hours making cards. Instead we ended up meeting friends in the city. They'd come up from Warrnambool for a course and were only here overnight. We met them, and a couple of other friends, in a little coffee shop in Richmond and spent a cosy three hours nursing a cappuccino and chatting. And my card making has been moved to this afternoon.

The weather has turned cold again, it's been freezing. We've kept the fire going and have only put the ducted heating on for about an hour first thing in the morning, when it has been very cold. I can't wait for the gas bill to come in to see just how low it is. And we have enough wood to see us through to the end of September when hopefully the weather will have warmed up enough to not need a heater.

I'm not sure where the time goes, but every day just seems to fly by. There's always something to do, especially when we're trying to not just save money, but not spend any we don't need to, too!