The Week that Was 15th May 2022

Hello!
The week started out cold, but the rain stopped, and the sun came out. The days were mild, not warm, but not freezing cold either.

The garden is going great guns of course. Between plenty of good rain and the warmer days, the seeds have sprouted and the little plants are growing so fast. I've been feeding them every week with either compost tea or worm tea, to give them a boost for winter.

Monday was a frustrating day. I had a shopping list, basic things to add to the pantry, partly to get ready for the One Month Pantry Test and partly to get ahead of shortages that have been predicted (by me for almost two years and now by MSM and supermarkets and State and Federal Governments).

One thing that I had trouble getting was eggs. I went to two Aldi stores, a Coles supermarket and finally found eggs at a Woolworths (and you all know that Woolworths is out of my way - yes, I made a special trip just to get eggs!). I could only get three dozen so they came home. 

Other frustrations are meat prices. Aldi is still selling beef mince for $10.99/kg; Costco sells it for $9.99/kg in a bulk pack (around 3.5kg per pack). I saw rump steak for $48.99/kg! I'm starting to think that eating meat will soon be the equivalent of a mortgage payment!

To get a little ahead, I prepped soup dump packs and casserole dump packs for the freezer. It just means I peel and chop and dice the veggies and vacuum seal them. They keep in the fridge for up to a month, which is handy. Or they can be frozen and dumped into the slow cooker or pressure cooker for quick soup or casserole meals.

They are pretty much the same contents, just prepped differently. Celery, onions, carrots, parsnips, swede. For the soup dump packs they get grated in the food processor. For the casserole dump packs they get cut into bite sized chunks.

Prepping ahead saves time - yes, it does! Only one clean up, and it takes around 15 minutes if I get moving, half and hour if I dawdle and fiddle faddle around and I have four soup dump packs and four casserole dump packs ready to open and dump. That's the base of eight meals prepped and cleaned up in 15 minutes, an ideal use of my time and energy.

 Veggies processed for soup

It was nice to get the washing on the line on Monday and Tuesday. Sunshine fresh is so nice.

On Friday of last week I was given a big bag of lemons, so Tuesday was processing day. Some were zested and juiced. I made lemon butter, froze some juice, made a lemon syrup cake and lemon syrup for Lemon Chicken. I used some to make lemon and orange marmalade and Whole Lemon Cake (one of my variations on Whole Orange Cake).

The fire has kept the house toasty warm on cold days and overnight. We haven't lit the pilot for the ducted heating yet, and we may not bother. Once the house warms up, if we keep the fire going, then the house stays warm, and we have plenty of firewood to use.

I'm still filling the thermos for hot drinks during the day.

Used tortillas from the freezer to make chips. This freed up freezer space and gave us snacks without having to buy anything. I kept some aside to use for Haystacks that are on the meal plan next week (there are no corn chips in the pantry so we will make do).

Caught shower warm-up water and tipped it into the washing machine.

We had some rain so I didn't need to water the garden.

Used the solar charger to charge my phone.

Kept an eye on power points and lights made sure they were turned off when appliances weren't being used.

Only two trips out this week, saving fuel.

Had a lovely day with Wendy and Hannah on Saturday, making cards. I managed to get five done, the most I've accomplished on a card day in months! And we still did plenty of talking.

 

 

What did you do to save money, time and energy this week?