It's Time to Budget....

...now that we have a wedding coming up......Mum and Robin are getting married in NZ on 5th September.....CONGRATULATIONS!!!

So, my plan is to spend $140 a week on food. This will include toiletries and dog food.

To keep me accountable and to show Kim that I can do it (fingers crossed) I am going to post what I spend.

To help, I am going to do a weekly menu and for this week it is:

Tues: roast chicken and vegies

Wed: sweet and sour fish with rice (broccoli, cauli, carrots) - Brody is cooking!!

Thur: wraps (marinated steak and salad inside fajita wraps)

Fri: Sticky Licky wings with fried rice (use leftover rice from Wed night

Sat: zucchini slice and salad - Tori is cooking!!

Sun: everybody get their own - Tori and I will probably have poached egg on toast

Mon: salmon patties and salad

So there you go, I think it is a pretty well balanced week.

This is the recipe that Brody is using for the sweet and sour fish

http://www.birdseye.com.au/Fish-and-Seafood/Sweet-and-Sour-Fish-Recipe.asp

I did my food shopping after work and spent the following:

Woolworths $105.32

Bakers Delight $ 7.00

Fruit & Veg shop $ 6.50 = Total $128.82, so I have $11.18 left.

I will need more fruit, so I will top up on maybe Saturday. Fruit and Veg shop was very small because I already have a good stock still from the Growers Market and I am eating my home grown pumpkin, potatoes, onions, rocket, tomatoes and baby spinach. And of course my eggs. Wow, all of that would really help cut down costs :)

I have never really had a dessert each night, so I am not really planning those in my budget. I did buy a jelly mix today, so I will make that up for the kids. I will also make a date slice and look for a microwave banana muffin recipe as I have some bananas to use. I have a good supply of fresh fruit for us and also some tins of fruit for back up and some yoghurt. Could always make a rice custard or baked custard, that would be pretty cheap for me with free eggs, if I find a microwave recipe.

For next weeks shop, I will have a look at the specials catalogues that Coles and Woolies drop off, and try and base my menu around what is on special. This should help save a few dollars as well.

To help reduce my expenses, I am going to cut costs in other areas as well, eg: I am going to make my own washing powder again. When I run out of powder, and make a new one, I will post how I do it.

I will see how this $140 works out, and in a couple of weeks I might give myself an alcohol budget....GASP!! Big breaths ..... :)

Sandy

Tori's Birthday Quilt....

Tori turned 12 on Nov 27th.

Tracey made her this quilt. From October to Christmas she completed 5!!! I keep on telling her that she could sell them.

Tracey has named them all, and Tori's is called 'Tori and Nanny Meryl's Garden', as some of the fabric is called Grandmas Garden :)

Sandy

Sunday afternoon...

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year :)

Am doing some tidying up inside today, along with time on the computer. I am spending 30mins on computer and then 30mins cleaning and then back to 30mins on computer, then back to cleaning, blah blah blah :) Working a treat. Have done a load of washing (lounge room cushions and stuff), vacuumed through, tidied lounge and dining, in the process of the kitchen now, as such as the kitchen is!

Had to share my pumpkin though. I cut it yesterday, picked it probably a couple of weeks ago. And look how fantastic it looks. I just steamed it in the microwave, along with some of my potatoes, and had them with brocolli and peas and roast chicken for tea last night. Yummo!!

I picked another one a couple of days ago, and it looks like another will be ready in a few days (the plant has really died off). Both of these 2 aren't as big as the first one though.

On the garden front, I have planted some runner beans, some more spinach (the gorgeous red stemmed one) and some baby cucumbers.

Today, Tracey and I went out to the Armadale Growers Market, they only started up in Nov. Bought some lovely organic fruit and veg. and some apple juice! On the way back called through the Maddington Swap Meet, and managed to get a couple of rhubarb plants, some chocolate mint, a couple of pink flowering plants and an eggplant. Will get all of them planted tonight, when it is cooler.

Sandy

Sandy

A Hard Day's Work....

Spent the WHOLE day in the back yard yesterday!

Got Tori and Brody to give me a hand for a couple of hours. Brody worked so hard, Torza not so hard after an hour :)

The weather was perfect for a day outside, so I ignored everything else, and just got into it. I used Brody's stereo in the shed and played cd's loudly all day.

The backyard is nearly how I want it to be, just need the lawn to spread more, and do some retic. Will still have to do the side bit, but haven't decided exactly what I want there.

I spread mulch, re-potted, re-organised, weeded, trimmed, moved, cleaned, tidied........

The mulch (lighter colour one) I bought off http://www.mulchnet.com.au/ . Great buy! I got 3 cubic metres for $110. There is sooooo much. Heaps still out the front, I hope to mulch the front garden (have already done the smaller one, just need to weed the larger bed first)

Have a good week....

Sandy

Tori's graduation...

was on Monday night.

Both her and Shayla looked gorgeous!!!!You can't see her hair very well in the photo, but there was a cute diamonte hair clasp and I curled her hair.

The night started with the formal speeches and presentations, Tori's best friend Teisha got the Citizenship Award and Tori got the award for Best Faction Leader. Well done, girls!!

They finished off the night with some dances, including the Tango. All the kids came out on to the floor, in partners, with the boy holding a long stemmed rose. Then the boys bowed and presented the rose to the girl. So cute!!

I managed to have a dance with Tori and Jay did the daughter/father dance with her :)

This is her official Graduation Photo :)

It was a lovely night!!

Sandy

Has it been that long....

Since I posted? Can't believe it!

A very quick catchup, before I get ready for work.

Kitchen is out, what a drama that was! Had to get a builder in to support a beam in the roof, so that the feature crappy brick could be taken out. It was a builder that we use at work, and he took 3 weeks to get here, although telling me every couple of days that he was on his way! Anyway, then I had to get the ceiling fixed, along the wall where the brick came out and some of the wall repaired. All done now and looks good. Now some of the flooring has to be lengthened, because when you get cupboards built they don't make them to what size you want, they are all a standard 600mm deep! Some of that crappy brick wall came out 700mm (around the oven) and so that is where the floor had been laid. Have to check my excess sitting in the shed, to see if I need to buy more. Have got two quotes in the last couple of weeks, first one for $9200 and the second for $12000. These are both better than the $14000 Kitcraft quoted me back in January (does not include any appliances). I have passed on the design that I drew up to my old boss, Elizabeth (interior designer) and she gave me back a page full of changes!! So now she is drawing up what she thinks I should do. May not get that back until next week.

Kids are well, Brody is unemployed at the moment and not very interested in doing anything. He told me that he wanted to start doing some work on the Mazda that I gave him, so I drove it into the back yard. But him and his mates just seem to sit in it and smoke cigarettes!

Tori has just finished 2 weeks swimming lessons and passed both Level 7 and 8. Congratulations Torza!!! You clever girl :)

In the vegie garden - dug out a good pile of beautiful potatoes from the garden bed (still have the tyres to dig out), had to feed some cauliflowers to the chooks as they were no good (not sure if any of them will be ok), have planted some beetroot, have been picking brown onions when I need them (they are fantastic), still have some spring onions left, tomatoes are ripening up and pick a couple every couple of days (hundreds of plants coming up from where the chooks used to be), Tori tried a snow pea (won't be long til they are ready)

Ok, time to go. Sorry there are no photos, haven't had a chance to load them onto the computer. Will show some over the weekend :)


Sandy

A catch up....

Finally......

Have had computer problems and bits and pieces happening, and I couldn't get on.

Tori and Shayla won their last 2 netball games. Both good games. The second last one, the score was 28 - 12 and Shayla got 15 goals. She played so well!! We had their windup at a rollerskating rink last Saturday. Kids had a ball, but 2 mums had their arms in slings and had to go to the hospital after! Tori has told me that one broke her wrist. Never fear, Bub and I didn't put the skates on :)

Vegie garden is going well. I have taken some photos, will try and upload over the weekend. I planted punnets in the new bed - chinese cabbage, cabbage, lettuce, potatoes (also in tyres), some chinese stir fry vegie, broccoli and cauliflower. All look good! The potatoes are absolutely booming!!

Chooks are going well in their new spot, all the grass is gone. Getting 3 eggs a day.

So...the electrician and plumber have been and disconnected everything in the kitchen. Charged me $130 all up, I was pretty happy with that. But....have now found out that the bricks I want to knock out, are a supporting wall! Bugger!! Jay is going to talk to Gil, and we will see what happens. The mini skip is here, we still have it for another week, but I don't like my chances now of knocking it out before then.

Tori has the flu. I stayed home with her on Monday and Tuesday, and now I have it as well. Shocking cough, body aches, head aches. I feel like I have been hit by a bus. Poor Tors has the school athletics carnival today and as she is faction captain, there is no way she is going to miss it.
Ok, that is all I can cope with now.

Not crash hot photos, but these are of the kids at the carnival in 2006.

Sandy