An expensive, (but enjoyable) afternoon out

It was the last Friday of the school holidays, still raining and hubby's last full day before he goes back to work.

Considering with the amount of rain around we really haven't done much with the kids, hubby suggested we take them to the movies.

We have a few options withing 20 to 30 minutes of us so we decided to head up to Sunshine Plaza shopping centre (or Mall to my American friends) where there are plenty of shops as well as cinemas.

We had a few other things we needed to do so we got there a bit earlier and let the kids have a look around as well.  They were so fascinated that a creek actually ran through the middle of the shopping centre.

The above photo is looking one way with cafe's and restaurants to the left and the cinemas are over the bridge in the distance to the right.

The below photo is looking from one side of the centre over towards the Brasserie (or Food Court to most of us).

The fountain really got the kids excited.

And of course the bridge that we had to walk across a number of times.  Trust me, it does look a lot better when not dull and raining.

The object of our outing was to go to the movies though.  It was our first family outing ever to the movies so we decided to go and see Brave.

I didn't realise until I was buying the tickets that it was actually a 3D showing of Brave and I didn't know how everyone would go with that.  I shouldn't have worried, it went well as the kids thought they were so cool.

What wasn't cool was the price.  Tickets for 2 adults, 2 children and 2 boxes of popcorn got us only a few coins in change out of $100!

I was in such shock about the price, especially as that one outing has cost us more than my groceries do each week. (Yes, I'm still doing the grocery challenge).

We all loved the movie though even if there were a few scarey bits and we had kids sitting on laps for cuddles.  Master M kept kneeling on the floor and looking through the cracks between the two chairs in front but his first experience at the movies was a hit.

Now I just have to recover from the shock at the cost!

xx Susan

Grocery update and cotton bedspread

I know I haven't been very forthcoming with the grocery update over the last couple of weeks but I'll just say that I've been making it in under my $80 budget...just.

Perhaps I do tell a small fib because the week after our trip to St Lawrence, we added an extra $10 to that week's budget.  The main reason was because our big freezer gave up the ghost while we were away so we came home to lots of defrosted foods, meat, and pre-prepared meals.  We won't mention the lemon juice blocks I had stored in bags which then melted all through the freezer!  Not good.

So I am sticking to my budget still although since the freezer breakdown I've had to be a little craftier with things.

Onto other things.

I have promised to show you progress on my cotton bedspread.

I stil haven't quite joined all the hexagons I've completed yet but I'll get there.  The photos will give you a bit of an idea of what it looks like anyway.

The joins are quite interesting as I'm trying a number of different techniques to decide which are my favourite ways of sewing blankets together and which ways look better.  It's for my bed and not for anyone else's so I don't mind if a couple of joinings are raised and others are flat.  If I had the time and inclination I'd undo the ones I'm not happy with and re-sew them but that won't be happening any time this decade so I'll just be happy with it as is.

Hope you have all had a great weekend!  It was my Mother-in-law's 60th birthday so we partied on Saturday night (all the adults) then had a lunch time get-to-gether with all her grandkids present the next day.  It was a lovely, if busy weekend.

xx Susan



This week's grocery update..among other things

I knew that I'd be pushing my $80 benchmarch this week as I had a few bulk things to buy but I did come in under budget.....just.

I spent $79.29 all up so fell 71 cents short of my budget so that's really managing it well.

Next week will probably go close to the $80 as well because we're going away for a few days later in the week and will be taking plenty of food with us.

Hubby's not coming home to us but we're going up closer to him for the weekend and staying with friends of his from work who live in a tiny coastal town in the middle of nowhere.  It's near the ocean and the mouth of a river and is known not only for it's fishing but for a place where you can get plenty of mud crabs so we're looking forward to going.

I've been baking and getting things organised for going but I know I'll have to replenish the stocks before we go.  The tangy lemon slice (pictured below) will definately have to be made again. 

It's the first time I've tried it and Little Miss R and I absolutely LOVE it.  It has no chocolate in it so Master M won't go near it of course.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day for us here in Australia so it's family day for us even though Lovely Hubby's not home.  We're having a barbeque breakfast at the bike park which we love going to and it's a double celebration because it's also my Uncle's birthday so we're all looking forward to spending some lovely time together.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.

xx Susan



An absolutely gorgeous day

I was woken this morning to the VERY LOUD AND CONSTANTLY REPEATED yelling of 'Mummy!'.

Master M woke up well before 6am and couldn't sleep so he had to wake us all up to tell us that he couldn't sleep.  Thank goodness the day only got better.

It was the most gorgeous Autumn day.  No rain in sight and happy kids and mummy.  I didn't have any plans and made up the day as we went along. 

First up we made some things out of air dry clay.

Baskets, bowls and shells were made and we all had such fun making them.  Even a clay 'man' was made although he has since fallen apart.

While the kidlettes played on bikes and scooters, I was able to join some more hexagons on my bedspread.  It's coming along nicely and starting to look really good so I'll take another photo soon of exactly what I've done so far so you can see it.

During the afternoon we headed out to my sister Sandra's place.  We all LOVE going to visit there so much and today I also had a bit of an ulterior motive for going.

It has to do with my grocery challenge of course and as I have no garden to speak of, not even herbs growing anymore, I decided to pilfer some of the lovely offerings from Sandy's.

I'm also a little humbled to know that I've inspired my sister to start a grocery challenge of her own.  Good luck petal.  I know you'll be super organised (as you are the organisational queen) and will meet the challenge easily and well.  I feel if I can do it then nearly anyone can!

I've now got some lovely herbs including rosemary, basil, parsely and a nice big chunk of ginger.  You can't get much fresher than that!

The main reason we went out there was for the citrus.  The oranges aren't ready yet and there are only a few limes ready on the tree too but there's plenty of mandarines.  Little Miss R had about 3 before we even left Aunty Sandy's and you can see her below telling the dogs that the one she just picked is for her and not for them.

So over the next few months I certainly won't have to worry about citrus as we'll be supplied from the trees in the orchard.  You can see here when I did my first grocery challenge last year just how much we got one afternoon.  In fact I still have lemon juice frozen in blocks in the freezer from then and am mainly making lemon butter and lemon squash from them.  Yum!

Once we left Sandy's place, the kidlettes wanted to go the long way home.  I felt like a bit of a drive too so we headed towards the township of Glasshouse Mountains.  Looking at the late afternoon sunlight shining on the mountains was just beautiful and I felt the need to stop and soak it all in.

That meant it was off to the lookout to gaze over this beautiful area that we live.  In the middle of the next photo you will see a tiny sliver of darker blue where the sky meets the land.  That's the Pacific Ocean and about right in the middle of the picture is Caloundra which is where we usually go when we want a beachy fix. 

We live behind the mountain (or hill) on the left in the next picture.  Not right behind it mind you, about 5 kilometres north of it but our town is hidden by NgunNgun in this picture. 

For my overseas readers (or other curious Australians), we live in the Glasshouse Mountains area in Queensland.  These are volcanic plugs named by Captain Cook back in 1770 and you can read more about the Aboriginal legend of the mountains here.

Once the kids had run all around the lookout area, scaring the wildlife and tourists with their noise, we headed home.

It was the most gorgeous day.  The kids were delightful and Mummy was relaxed and very happy.  Lets hope the rest of this long weekend continues to be this lovely.

xx Susan

Grocery challenge: update

So how have I gone this week with my grocery challenge?

Pretty well :)

I've gone under the $80 budget again and only slightly over the $60 target so I'm not too upset with myself. 

Drum roll..........$61.91 is my total spending for this week.

Next week may be a little different because there are a couple of good specials coming up on things we usually buy in bulk so I may be spending about a quarter of the budget on them.  I should be able to organise it so I'm under budget though.

Actually I'll HAVE to organise it because  I won't have much choice will I?   A budget is a budget and that's what you stick to so lets hope I organise things right and we don't miss out on essentials.

xx Susan

Another go at the Grocery Challenge

I decided recently that my grocery shopping was really getting out of hand.

I think it may have been the fact that things kept falling off the shelves every time I opened the pantry door.  They just didn't have the room to all fit in.

Last year I challenged myself (as inspired from Sue) to spend only $80 a week to feed a family of four for nearly 3 months.  With a little organisation I found that I did it with ease.

If you want to read more about it then head to my side bar and click on my other blog Sunshine Smiles which I've had for the last few years.  In the label section on the side bar you'll find GROCERY CHALLENGE where you can read my posts about it last year.

So why did I allow myself to let my grocery bill get out of hand again?  I really can't tell you exactly but I think that laziness or just the ease of not having to sit down and work things out probably won out.

You know what......that's just completely crap.

It took a small amount of time to work out my menu plan and grocery list once I had it all organised.  I only ever did it when hubby was home and he was given strict instructions that I wasn't to be disturbed by him or the kidlettes in the half an hour or so a week that I would sit down to work it out.

I did really well.

So now with everything getting out of hand, it's time to do it again.

Last week was my first week and even though I've given myself $80 if I need it, I'm trying to do it in under $60.  The first week probably is the easiest because you're using up things out of your pantry and freezer for most of the meals.

Imagine my surprise when I spent only $51.27 for the week.  This includes bread and milk too and we also have to buy special milk for Master M who is lactose intolerant.  (Perhaps I should just buy a cow though as he had NO problem with fresh cows milk from the farm.)

So I'm starting the grocery challenge again and this time I'm not giving it a time limit.  $80 a week is all I'm allowing myself because I KNOW  I can do it easily.

Wish me well everyone.


xx Susan

(Oh and remember, I don't have anything growing in my garden because I'm really not that much of a gardener.  In fact the only thing I had growing was parsley and Little Miss R ate all that because she loves to snack on parsley all day long.)