Thrifty things at the cottage Feb/March/April 2014

Hmmm, I said I would do this weekly!  HA!

Actually, I think monthly is probably a better idea.

Some of the thrifty things I have done over the past few months:

• I buy my hair dye on special for $10 per box.  Usually I buy 10 at a time because I get free delivery and free samples.  
• Dying my own hair has saved me thousands over the years.  I'm totally NOT ready to embrace the grey look yet (or maybe ever).
• Baked muffins and weetbix slice for snacks and lunchbox treats.  I took six muffins to my hairdressers for morning tea and six to my mum and dad's for morning tea too.

• Took my lunch to work every day
• Used the little car to run errands (it uses less petrol)
• Sold the twins cots on a buy/sell Facebook site. 
• Bought the twins some bunk beds.  Brand new these were well over $2K (excluding mattresses).  I looked on ebay and Gumtree until I found a set I wanted for $500 (including mattresses).  I found the drawers on ebay for $160.  All up, including new linen I got the whole set up for $760 (a saving of more than half price on the beds alone).  All it cost was a bit of running around for one afternoon.  The boys love them.

VERY difficult to get a good picture of the bunks in their room.  They look lovely in real life.

• Got some cute pictures for the boys room for $30.  These prints retail for RRP $8 - $15.95 each.  I got them already framed.

I got 8 pictures for $30

• Purchased some movie tickets from my work for half retail price.  My daughter and her friend enjoyed going to the movies and will again with the tickets I still have.
• Got some free mulch delivered for the garden that a tree lopper had leftover.

• Had to get some new glasses.  When looking at the frames the least expensive ones were $240!  I asked the optomerterist if they had any less expensive frames.  Low and behold - the No Gap or $50 Gap frames came out of the drawer!!!  I got a nice set of $50 Gap ones (they looked the best).  It pays to ask because they were not on display.
• I got completely caught out when my son needed antibiotics for an infection.  Went to the local Chemist and the script was $26 for the antibiotics (as it was late and an urgent appointment due to the infection).  Went to a different chemist for the repeat and it cost $6.90 for EXACTLY the same medication.  It pays to shop around for scripts.
• Bought a bunch of Lego for party gifts for 30% off.  I usually give a Lego set as a gift for when the boys get invited to a birthday.  Target was having a sale and I bought a number of sets with the discount and also got free delivery because I spent over a certain amount.  These sets had a $8 - 9 saving per box.

• Bought birthday cards at the cheap shop and Reject shop for $1 each.  I have a card box and like to have a stash for when birthdays come up.

• I bought mothers day cards for my mum and Greg's mum too.

I love being thrifty!

A lovely past week

It has been a lovely week that has gone by.  It was the last week of school (we are now in school holidays) and Michael had his cross country race.  Here are some action shots:

He had fun and enjoyed the race.

After we got our new fence last year, we bought some plants to grow a hedge down the back.  We needed mulch because it was looking a bit ratty and weeds were starting to grow.  To get some delivered from the local garden centre was quite expensive, so we hadn't done anything about it.

Lucky for me I saw an ad from a tree lopper that is local saying that they had FREE mulch and could deliver it in the local area.  It was about 1 hour after he posted it and I thought I probably was too late to be able to get any, BUT look what got delivered!!!  

A big load of fresh paperbark mulch.

Now to spread it around the garden.

Over the weekend Greg serviced one of the cars, saving us a lot of money in mechanic fees.  I'm luck to have a handy partner!

Here are some pics of the garden.  It's looking good.

Greg did the hedge and the lawns etc.  We really love living at our house :-)

And after a busy weekend, it's lovely for the boys to have a story before bed with Daddy <3

I found this book at my work (library).  It was one of the books that I can remember reading as a kid, so I got it for the boys.  They love it.  It is called The Animals of Farmer Jones.  Great book!

Wordless Wednesday - HEAVEN

New additions and loving our life

We have some new additions to celebrate.

Firstly, two weeks ago we gave a home to this little Himalyan cat called Boo.  A friends daughter had her and felt she couldn't give her the attention she needed, so was looking to rehome her.  They called me to see if we were interested as we have had a Persian cat before.  Greg met her and fell in love.  She has fitted in very well to our family and is a very loving cat.  I'm continually amazed at how people pay a lot for a pure breed animal and then don't want them anymore.  This is our 2nd Persian pure breed re-homed cat and 4th overall purebreed animal that was a rescue/rehome.

Secondly, I have revamped the working garden and added some new berry plants, transplanted some and moved it all around a bit.  Greg put up the wood surround to keep it all in place and it looks fantastic.

My raspberry plant has gone nuts and I have been eating quite a few raspberries from the plant.  They are absolutely delicious - words cannot describe the YUM! factor.

So over this Easter weekend (so lovely to have 4 full days off!) I bought 4 new plants and put them in.  Fingers crossed next summer I will have a big bumper crop.  Can't wait.

We took advantage of the fantastic weather and went for a bush walk at a place called Girrakool.  There are a number of walks and a beautiful waterfall, but we went on the little walk (which was great for the boys) and saw the little waterfall.  It was such a fun day.

I also took the boys up to see Mum and Dad.  They have Lake Macquarie just a 2 minute walk down the reserve from their place, so we went down to have a look.  They boys had a great time paddling in the water and of course one of them went all in, so they all jumped in for a splashing paddle.  They loved it and they had an absolute ball.  There were people water skiing, fishing and tubing on the lake and every now and again a fish would jump out of the water!  It was great fun.

We also have 4 new chooks that my sister gave me as she is moving up to Queensland soon.  We now have 6 chooks and are getting lots of eggs at the moment.  Lots of french toast and bacon and eggs for breakfast!

I had a couple of vouchers from Christmas and mum so I decided that I wanted to update our bedroom a little bit (but not do anything too time consuming).  Of course the best way to do this was to change the doona cover.  I had one on there that my sister had finished with but it was getting a bit ratty so I gave it to the op shop.  My other one I have had for YEARS (maybe 7 or so).  It is still going strong and looks great, but as the seasons changed I wanted something new.  

This all cost me $4 in total as I used the vouchers.  I bought it on line and didn't even have to leave the comfort of my lounge to get it.  I think it is a lovely $4 makeover LOL!!