Keeper of our Home - Homeschool Blogger

Hello Again!

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:34:00 -0600

It's been a number of months since my last blog entry- oh, dear!

We are heading into summer now, a glorious time of the year. Our summer veggie garden is all planted out with beans, beetroot, cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach, lettuces, silver beet, zucchini, rhubarb, pumpkins, strawberries, grapes...I think that's it! Yum- we enjoyed some baby spinach fresh from our garden combined with some lettuce for our salad for tonight's dinner, with our homemade mac and cheese.

I managed to keep the cost of the dinner to just over $5, not counting dessert though! We had a yummy rhubarb crumble with ice cream and our tummies were very full after that!

Cost breakdown:

Pasta, $1.50
White sauce $1
Cheese $1
Bacon .80
onion .15
spices and sunflower seeds .20
lettuce .25
spinach- free from garden

$4.90

Price of flour keeps going up.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:56:00 -0500

I went grocery shopping today and also stopped off at the supermarket that I usually buy flour from ( Countdown). I'm glad that I stocked up a few months back now! Since Dec the 5kg bags of white flour have gone up from $4.50 to $5.49. The wholemeal 1.5 kg was $1.49 in Dec and is now $1.89.

I bought enough flour ( both white and wholemeal) to last us until the end of this year. I bought it in Feb and paid $4.89 for 5kg white and $1.69 for the wholemeal. So far I have made a saving of about $55 and if it keeps going up it will be more!

The flour I buy is a plain brand called HOMEBRAND- it's actually from Australia. I remember buying it when we lived there. It is by far the cheapest around. I do all my other shopping at Pak and Save and their cheapest flour ( Pams brand) is $6.30 for 5kg!

I bought 15 large peppers today for $6. I sliced them all up finely and popped them in the freezer to use on our homemade pizzas. I thought I'd stock up now before the peppers become $1 per pepper or more! Next year I plan to grow them in our vegetable garden.

Extra Freezing.

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:16:00 -0500

Yesterday, a kind friend from our church brought over some beans, tomatoes and a very LARGE bunch of silver beet ( a little like spinach).I cooked up the beans for dinner that night to go with our pasta meal. The silver beet I washed, cut up and cooked. I then split it up into 3 large meal sizes for us, one to use later this week which I popped in the fridge, and the other two went in the freezer.

Earlier in the day dd15 and I peeled apples to make apple sauce. We made 6 litres worth. I popped 4 litres in the freezer and 2 litres in the fridge to use this week. My aim is to make about 5-6 litres of apple sauce each week, freezing 4 of the 6 litres while I can buy seconds from the orchard. Last year the apple season lasted well into September.

Today I picked all of the last tomatoes of their vines as the nights are getting colder here. I have popped them all on a large sheet of newspaper in our music to ripen up. I still have a lot of tomatoes in the fridge to use. I think that with the tomatoes that I picked today we will still have enough tomatoes for another month. So we have been blessed with free tomatoes for 5 months! I also have 70 cans worth of stewed tomatoes in the freezer to use until next January. Thank you Lord for our wonderful summer garden!

Tidying and Sorting.

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:23:00 -0500

After a lovely long morning walk, and lunch my dd15 and I spent some time tidying and sorting through her drawers and craft supplies. We tidied so well that we ended up with a free drawer! I also decluttered the upstairs bathroom cupboards and worked with ds11 on his drawers also. All in all a good job done! I always love the feeling of satisfaction after jobs like these.

We had some afternoon tea outside in the glorious sunshine and then I took in all the washing from the outside line. The younger children and I spent some time in the vegetable garden tidying it up. We took out all the dead bean plants and I push- hoed the soil.I'll have to spend another hour or two next week to complete the job. Before dinner I folded all the washing and put all the clean smelling clothes away.

We had yummy stir fry for dinner served over brown rice, with sliced tomatoes and a carrot salad on the side. After evening devotions we made pop corn and settled down to watch our weekly episode of Little House on the Prairie.

The little ones are now tucked up in their warm beds and two of the children are finishing up with the dinner dishes. I've just hung another load of washing on the indoor lines in the garage to dry over night and tomorrow, as rain is forecast.

Time now for a cuppa and bed soon.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

School Holidays

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:49:00 -0500

We are enjoying our school holidays at the moment, so a different routine.

Today after breakfast I took baby girl for our morning walk while the boys played with the lego. After morning tea I did a few extra cleaning jobs. I wiped the landing upstairs- walls and edges while my daughter cleaned the staircase. I then cleaned all the walls and door of the downstairs toilet. I'm up to date with my extra weekly cleaning jobs. I have a list with a job for each week to do.

After lunch while baby girl napped I drove to the orchard and bought our fruit for the week. I picked some more tomatoes from our garden and picked the last beans to dry and use for seed next season. There were still a few small zucchini also which I picked to use in tomorrow night's dinner.

I took baby girl for our afternoon walk and then went on a 1/2 hour bike ride with my son. It was fun. We had yummy chicken soup for dinner with fresh bread.

After the little ones were tucked up in their beds I wrapped a few presents for a 50th and 80th birthday and an engagement. Last week I bought 4 engagement presents for couples in our church.

Now for a cuppa and to put my feet up!

Great toothpaste special.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:37:00 -0500

I walked to New World supermarket this morning and bought 30 tubes of toothpaste. It was a 2 tubes for $3 special. The price is usually $2.29 for one, so a saving of 79c per tube. So a total saving of $23.70!

On Monday when I did my usual two week grocery shop I bought lots of jam.( 16 large jars) The jars were 900gr for $2.89 and usually $3.69, a nice saving of 80c per jar. I saved $12.80!

Weetbix( breakfast cereal) was also on special for $3.99 for a 1 kg box. I bought 6 boxes for our Sunday breakfasts. This should last us until the end of the year. The standard price was $6.70! A saving of $16.20.

I also managed to buy some baby toothbrushes at New World this morning for 50c each. I stocked up on 10, as I usually only see small toothbrushes for $3-4!

Over the past 2-3 months I have bought quite a lot of specials ( stock) which will last us until the end of the year. I've subtracted my total grocery spendings to date for this year from our budgeted total. Then I divided this remaining amount over 34 weeks to work out how much I should be spending from now on for groceries.This helps to keep me on track!

Cloth nappies.

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:07:00 -0500

I thought I'd add a brief post about using cloth nappies. We have used cloth nappies with all of our children and it has been great.I started using cloth with our first daughter 18 years ago now! I haven't really changed the way I 'do" cloth- it's still the same - folding my own flat rectangular nappies , using pins and plastic pants ( covers). I still have some of the nappies I used with our first daughter! Over the years I have been given many cloth nappies from friends and family, so all in all I have only bought 3 dozen flat nappies and plastic pants!

If we had used disposable nappies for all our 6 children @ the average cost of $15 per week ( counting on the fact they use more when they are little) it would have cost us $750 per year per child. Each child would need nappies for 2.5 years ( our girls trained quicker, but I'll use 2.5 years as an average). So for each child this would be a cost of $1875 x 6 children = $11,250.

Saving $11,250 is great, but what about the cost of washing and drying ALL those cloth nappies? Generally whether we have 1 or 2 children using cloth I would wash 3 loads per week costing about 5c per load ( this is powder and water).We have always had a good stash of a nappies so 3 loads per week was and is enough. I just use 1- 2 level tablespoons of my regular washing powder( which I always buy on special), and wash on warm and rinse on cold. I'm not sure of the electricity costs though for the washing of the nappies, but it would be minor. I always line dry the nappies. In the summer outside on the clothes line, and in the winter on drying racks or my indoor lines. So no drier costs here at all. So maybe a cost of 20c per week, so $10 per year for washing. A cost of $150 to wash all those nappies from 6 children- still brings us in at a saving of $11,050.

There is time involved with hanging the nappies out to dry, and folding them ready to use again- maybe a couple of hours out of my week each week.

I have been washing, drying and folding nappies for many, many years now. I will miss it when it all ends!!

Grocery Budgeting Part 10

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:23:00 -0500

This will be the final post in this mini series on grocery budgeting.

Just a few final thoughts...

Here are a few other key things which can help keep your bill lower:

Menu plan

Make a grocery list and stick to it

Grow a vegetable garden

Use less - of cleaning products, washing powder etc than the instructions tell you to use

Avoid ready- made - cook and bake from scratch

Have a kitchen day once per week when you bake, cook extra, cook beans in bulk, cook chicken and shred, make extra meals for the freezer, preserving fruit.

I hope these posts have helped a little! Enjoy your budgeting and saving. make it a challenge, fun and see where it takes you!

Grocery Budgeting Part 9

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:49:00 -0500

Baking- is it worth the time and the effort?

Today I made a batch of pikelets to have with our homemade bread for dinner.

Here's my recipe ( makes 30 large pikelets).

3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
5 cups flour
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups milk

Beat eggs and sugar together until thick. add all other ingredients and mix well. Fry in a little butter- yum!

This would cost me less than $1.50 to make. With our homemade bread 1/2 loaf- a frugal meal of around $2.50-$3( including toppings- jam etc).

Each week I bake for our snacks during the week and it's still worth the effort even though butter has REALLY gone up in price. I can bake enough for our afternoon teas and suppers for about $3.50. This would cost me quite a lot more if I bought ready made biscuits and cakes.

Grocery Budgeting Part 8

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 19:52:00 -0500

Stocking up on specials- is it worth t?

This year I have taken advantage of a few good specials and stocked up! A few months ago the coffee that I usually buy for my hubby was 1/2 price , @ only 99c per packet. The special was on at another supermarket from which I usually shop, but my older girls work there part-time.Each shift they worked they bought me 4 packets of coffee, as there was a limit of 4 at a time. I bought 25 packets in all which should last hubby ( and visitors) about a year. This was a saving of $25!

I usually buy a plain no name brand of rolled oats for $3 for 1.5kg. One day I was in the supermarket and they had Harraways rolled oats for $2.59 per packet. I used to always buy Harraways, but not since the price rose to $3.50 plus. I bought 50 packets- yes, 50! I had a few comments and questions. Was I cooking for a school camp??? This should last us close to a year and saves us $20. I have plenty of storage space, so storage isn't an issue. The last time I looked the Harraways rolled oats went up to over $4 per packet,so I'm happy with my special price!

Last year I got a great deal on flowing soap. Usually the refill bottles were about $3 I think. I bought 50 bottles for 99c each. We haven't used up our supply as yet! Savings $100!

Some people don't bother with specials and their savings. It is worth it to stock up when you can. Over a year you may save hundreds! Just with 3 items I have saved $145!