BARGAIN FRUIT AND VEGGIES AND HOMEMADE CHICKEN AND VEG SOUP

This morning I decided that we were long over due for a huge pot of homemade veggie soup to be made in this house! So off I went to Virgara Fruit and Veg (this is in Angle Vale about 20 minutes from where I live,,,,,,for those Aussies, it is about 30-40 minutes drive north of Adelaide). I don't go there as often as I used to, as their prices started to rise and I could get stuff equally as cheap closer to home. They used to be soooo cheap,,,, and then they decided to expand a little and the customers had to pay lol.

But on Fridays they do their market days and put selected stuff out really cheap.

Today for a sum of $39.55
3 x canned corn kernels - $4 (this wasn't that cheap but I needed them and didn't want to go to another shop lol)
2 x D'oro Tomato Puree bottles - $2.78
1 x Bunch of Celery - $2.50
3 x Margarine - $4
2 x whole Cabbages - $4
1 x Bunch Leeks - $3.99
1kg Carrots - $0.29
2 x medium Zucchini - $1.67
2.35kg Sweet Potato - $2.02
1.2kg Tangellos - $2.55
1kg Brown Onions - $0.04 (no this is not a typo they were 4 cents a kilo!!)
840g Tomatos - $1.23
1kg Royal Gala Apples - $0.45 (yes these were just 45 cents a kilo!)
2.1kg Pumpkin - $0.82
6 x Kiwi Fruit - $0.84
1.4kg Bananas - $1.37
2 Dozen Eggs - $3
2 x Punnet Strawberries $4

I thought that was a pretty good haul. The kids are all covered for their favourite lunchbox fruits and I get to make a huge pot of soup.

I am going to put in a barbecue chicken, pasta, onion, sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, celery, zucchini, leek, spring onion, and various herbs and spices and let it simmer away tomorrow afternoon.....mmmmmmmmmYUMMMY!!!

My Op Shop Finds - someone's trash is another person's treasure.....

Well I haven't been to an op shop in so long. I have donated plenty lately lol but haven't actually set foot inside on of the actual shops. This morning I changed that. I braved the heat as I am,,,make that was,,,,in need of a couple of bowls.

Last night Mr14 went to feed the dog some of the dinner leftovers and as Billy the Dog jumped up at him excitedly trying to see what was on the dinner menu, Mr14 accidentally dropped the bowl. Unfortunately it was Mr6's Shrek bowl that he had got a couple of years ago at Easter, so he wasn't too happy about that :( Oh well not much you can do about it when it smashes into numerous pieces.

We desperately needed a couple more as we only had the bare minimum. I have plenty of plastic bowls but I don't really want to be eating out of those continuously,,,well not for dinner at least lol. We are trying really hard to be more frugal and stop wasting things. So I decided that since I don't have a matching dinnerset anyway (mine is a hodgepodge of mine and Hubby's that we just put together when we met and so we have about 3 or 4 dinnersets combined together.....out of all that you would think that we would have enough bowls wouldn't you???? But sadly no, bowls seem to be the things that get dropped alot in this house. So anyway back to my op shop lol,,,,,I found 2 bowls (non matching but perfectly useful anyway) for 25 cents each. I had intended to just get the bowls but on the way out I saw a Dorothy the Dinosaur in really great condition for just $2.50 (she even sings now that I have replaced her batteries!) and a large wooden cutout of Tigger (you know the tiger from Winnie the Pooh) complete with the hanging string on his back for just $3.00. Well I decided that I could list those on Oztion and make, possibly double my money or more. Up until now I have just been selling my decluttered items from around the house and while I haven't made a fortune I have made enough over the last 6 months to pay for quite a few of our Xmas gifts last year. This year I am thinking that any sales from January through to March/April will go towards a holiday (our hopeful holiday at this point) and from then on any sales I make will be divided equally between the mortgage (every little bit helps I say!) and our christmas fund.

Ok I had better get moving and actually get these two things listed. Stay cool everyone that is sweltering at the moment!!!!!