This week Jessica and I made a trip to Chadstone shopping centre to have a look around.  I say that but Jessica was the one keen to do the shopping.  I was the one just wanting to look.  Chadstone is a beautiful shopping centre but it's not my cup of tea.  There are far too many high end stores with overpriced merchandise.

The funny thing is, many years ago I worked there for two years until just before Jessica was born.  I loved Chadstone then,  now my tastes ( and budget ) have changed.  This week my heart was steering me in the direction of Kmart,  The Reject Shop,  Target and Daiso. My kinda stores for my budget.

Here's my frugal list for this week

*  Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.  I used recycled bread bags to store them in the freezer.

*  Refilled the dishwashing liquid bottle and diluted it by 1/3.

*  Refilled all my herb and spice jars with bulk packets I purchased from Hindustan Imports in Dandenong.  By doing this I save a small fortune each year.  I also made a list of what I'm running low on so when I'm near the store next,  I can buy the items

*  Gratefully received a few department store gift bags from a friend.  This weekend I'll be redecorating them so they can be reused.  I think it's been a few years since I bought wrapping paper for birthday presents.

*  Gratefully received lots of muffins leftover from Jessica's work.  We had so many that I took some to a cleaning client's home for them to enjoy too.

*  Picked silverbeet,  rosemary and a couple of bunches of roses to take to Megan's place when we went over for dinner.  She really enjoyed the flowers which I arranged in a couple of jam jars.

*  Baked and sold lots of raspberry and white chocolate muffins to a long time cleaning client.  She's also put in an order for mini quiches and chocolate muffins for next time.

*  Jessica did another declutter of her bedroom.  I was able to take quite a few items to Savers and received a discount stamp.  With that stamp I was able to purchase Christmas decorations and baby clothes for Megan at 15% off.

*  Saved the shower warm up water to pour into the washing machine.  Saved water from our drink bottles into a bucket in the kitchen.  This was used to soak saucepans and rinse out the sink.

*  Jessica and I ate from the freezer ( leftovers ) for dinner  when Darren was out at night.

*  Picked a bunch of roses for Jessica's bedside table.

*  Replenished my dishwashing stockpile with bottles on a half price sale in Coles.

*  Picked lettuce from our garden to make a salad for dinner.  I also picked silverbeet for three meals.

Garden goodies for Megan

Iceberg roses with a hint of pink.


Bargain present buy. $3 a plate

Plate teamed with a candle from Spotlight.

Lightly cooking the silverbeet.

A couple of weeks ago I launched a new Facebook page called Aussie Bargain Shoppers.  This is a page where people can share any bargains they find or sales they see advertised.  If you'd like to join this group,  please pop on over,  answer the three question on the page ( just so I know you are truly a bargain shopper and not a robot ) and we'll approve you for the group.  Here's the link Aussie Bargain Shoppers


 How did you save time,  money or energy this week ?