Sunday savings

Stayed in bed for an extra half hour this morning. Saved on gas (didn't turn the heater on) and electricity (no lights on either). When I woke up I decided it was too cold and miserable to get up so I snuggled back down under the doona.

It was so cold and dark when I woke up this morning that I just snuggled back down under the doona for another half hour. Bliss. The savings were in gas (not turning the heater on) and electricity (ditto for lights, it really was dark).

Once I did leave my cosy bed I put a load of washing on. I am sure it breeds in the basket there is always so much of it. Once the cycle had finished it went over the clotheshorse next to the fire. By this time Wayne was up and had a roaring fire going so I could turn the central heating off.

The fire was beautiful and warmed the whole house in no time. The washing dried quick smart too, even the jeans were dry in just three hours! A trick I learned a long time ago to speed the drying process is to put a sheet or towel or other largish item over the top of the clotheshorse. It acts like a tent, trapping the hot air inside and drying the washing in super quick time.

With the school holidays coming to an end and after 16 days of not really caring what went on (I didn't care about anything except paracetamol, lemon juice and honey) it was time to take control again. Wayne and the kids did a great job managing while I was sick and didn't even go over budget which was a fantastic effort being school hols and having a houseful of extra kids.

Supplies of baked goods were definitely low and eggs, cheese and fresh milk all needed to be topped up so it was off to Aldi for Hannah and I. Milk at Aldi is still only $2.99 for 3 litres and I can get it all the time. Coles sells milk for the same price but unless you are there as it's unpacked you miss out. I am so proud of myself – we walked out of Aldi with a dozen eggs, a block of cheese and two bottles of milk, absolutely nothing else. We thought about Melting Moments but decided we can make them at home and end up with a lot more biscuits for much less money so we passed on them.

Just as we were leaving I remembered that Coles had 1.25kg tins of Milo for $7.99 – a real bargain. We haven't had Milo for so long so we stopped off at Coles for two tins of Milo. I put half of one tin into a canister in the pantry and put the other half a tin in the store cupboard in the laundry and one tin has gone straight into the Christmas hamper. The kids will make the Milo last longer if they don't have a lot to use. Sneaky aren't I?

It's birthday time with Hannah starting the round of family celebrations in a couple of weeks. We looked at invitations in the $2 shop, and we looked at invitations at The Warehouse and didn't see any she liked or that I would pay for so home we came. We spent a couple of hours playing around with the scrapbooking papers, stickers, letters and embellishments and made our own. Total cost: nothing. Everything we used was left over from scrapbook layouts. See, hoarding can pay off.

I put a roast in the oven for dinner, along with some muffins and a log cake. We all like our Sunday roast and I know Wayne looks forward to it each week. With Thomas still away there were plenty of leftovers for lunches. I forgot Thomas wouldn't be home for dinner so there were extra roast vegies too. I love cold roast potato and pumpkin. They went onto a plate for my lunch tomorrow. Yum.

We have had a very peaceful and quiet two weeks owing to my dose of flu but it's back to normal on Tuesday when school goes back. I will miss having the kids home but at least I will be able to get some work done :).