08 May 2022

The Week that Was 8th May 2022

Happy Mother's Day! 

The weather turned this week, and it went from a balmy 21C on Monday, with blue skies and sunshine, to wind, rain and a chilly 13C on Tuesday and it stayed about that for the rest of the week.

I've been fighting off allergies for a few days. Running eyes, itchy nose, itchy skin have been driving me crazy.  Turns out it's not allergies, and hopefully with a correct diagnosis I'll be on the mend soon.

The cold snap means we've eaten our way through two pots of chicken soup. It's so warming for lunch, and it's cheap and easy to make too. Six litres costs around $3 to make from pantry ingredients for about 25 cents per serve.

Speaking of pantry ingredients, we are about to embark on a pantry challenge with a bit of a twist. This pantry challenge goes for a month, until the 10th June, and there is only one rule: we have to live of what is in the pantry, and only what's in the pantry. No quick top-up shop for milk or fresh fruit. If we run out, we wait.

Why are we doing this? Well I issued the challenge to everyone on Tuesday night's show, as a trial run for a real grid-down, TEOTWAWKI, zombie apocalypse type event where we would be staying home, shops shut, no markets and not able to barter with neighbours. At the end of the month we should all know the gaps in our pantries, and know what we have too much of and what we don't have enough of, so we can get cracking on filling the gaps.

I've only been out once this week, so no driving means very little fuel used. The fuel money for this week has been moved to the holiday fund. I tend to do this when the fuel fund has a healthy surplus.

We have continued to be power wardens, keeping a close eye on how much power we are using. Lights off if no one is in the room, appliances turned off at the wall and unplugged. The thermos is still filled every morning for hot drinks through the day.

Washing has been dried on the clotheshorse.


Winter bedding was brought out and summer bedding is slowly being washed, dried and put away for the winter.

I picked sweet basil and mint from the garden.

I picked capsicums, eggplants and rhubarb from the garden.

Fed the pots with worm tea.

Cleaned the dishwasher and washing machine with bicarb soda and vinegar.

Fed the worms with veggie peelings.

Made a quadruple batch of pasta sauce, used one and put three into the freezer.

Made a quadruple batch of Mexican Meatballs, used one, and froze three for future meals.

 

Darned the heel of one of Wayne's woollen socks.

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

2 comments:

  1. I ended up spending a bit of money this week. I drove down to Mum's and had a sleepover with her and Dad. I took Mum out to a beautiful Sunshine Coast Hinterland native plant nursery that has a gorgeous cafe. Mum never goes out to eat, so this Morning Tea was quite special for her. I also bought her a plant that she chose.
    Mum has a friend who is downsizing her craft supplies. I am the lucky recipient of a huge amount of fabric, books and sewing notions. Some of the items I plan on sharing with friends. I wont be purchasing much at Spotlight for a very long time.
    I inherited a partially quilted cot quilt. I have finished this off and added a rod pocket to the back. This will be for the Grandsons Birthday next month. His parents can use it as a cot quilt or as a wall hanging. Total cost nothing but my time and effort.
    Our garden is producing most of our leafy greens. I have seedlings, I grew from seeds, ready to go out into the spaces I have in the garden beds. The rampant pumpkin is in the process of being tamed, so that the garden bed can have onions planted in it. I am drying off thyme and have plans to run the very large spring onions through the dehydrator. That will free up another garden bed.
    Bluey picked up a box of ten packets of Panko bread crumbs for $3. The same packets at Woolies are $5/pkt. That was his bargain of the week.

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  2. I stocked up all I could remember last week in preparation for the challenge. I started a menu plan for the month, but it got overturned by hubby & daughter, who wanted other meals, appointments etc, so it was back to the drawing board. I have our raised gardens doing well, (well not so good with the broard beans and peas - they arent doing very good, I have tested the soil and the PH is where it's supposed to be. ) I issued the challenge rules to hubby and daughter, few grumbles, but they are going to try to keep to it.
    Winter bedding went on last week, BOY you can feel the difference. Winter clothes bought out and hung out to air. I did an inventory of home stocks, freezers, and pantry. I have been teaching a friend, long distance as she is 4hrs away, how to use her dehydrator, lots of phonecalls - I am so glad I'm on an unlimited plan.
    As the weather gets colder I will pull out my quilting, a good way to stay warm.
    We got 4 new raised beds to add to the 8 we already have, but as I couldnt get soil prior to today, it will have to wait til later to get it. I will start the seeds anyway, as I remembered to get potting mix last week. I am building my own mini hot house using a free shelving unit and clear plastic sheeting from the cane steak packets. I also got star pickets and wire last week ready to fence off the feathered mafia aka our chooks. We were given a 2m x 3m shed and this will become their new house inside their yard. Hopefully that meand we get some of our yard back lol, as I want to set up the outdoor table & chairs I found free on the naturestrip in our street. The old table we have, will become my potting table

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