Frugal "Friday" - Week 47 of 52

Our Thanksgiving table this year - it was just the four of us this year.  Ham, corn, yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, and sparkling cider.  We had apple pie for dessert.

I guess the year is officially winding down now - the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving is over, Advent starts next weekend, and Christmas is just around the corner.  I am grateful that we have had a quiet weekend - John has had a terrible head cold and all of us were just ready for a bit of a real and true break.  We spent all of "Black Friday" watching movies in our pajamas (except for a Jazzercise class for me!).  Then we slept in on Saturday morning too.  Ahhh… bliss!   I think we are officially ready for the last bit of 2018.

Here are some of the frugal things we did this past week:

* Baked apple pie, jam thumbprint cookies, chili, chicken noodle soup, as well as Thanksgiving dinner at home this week.

* Took advantage of a non-Black Friday sale to purchase some stocking stuffers for family - spending $6 and change for several stocking stuffers.  They averaged about $0.37 each after the sale.

* We went to the library and checked out several books and a movie.  We also renewed a few books and returned a few books and another movie.

* Used our phone and Internet to communicate with relatives over the holiday rather than traveling to visit in person.  We will see both sets of relatives over the Christmas holidays and it is outside of our current budget to travel.

* I let out the side seams on a hand-me-down like-new dress that was only slightly too tight for our daughter.  It now fits perfectly!  She is very excited to have a new dress for the school Christmas concert this year. 

* We ordered two Christmas gifts using money we had set aside.  We have been picking up items for Christmas for most of the year or making them with items we already have on hand.  We are almost finished with Christmas shopping!  I am hoping to have everything done before our relatives arrive mid-December so we can all enjoy visiting rather than having to shop. 

* Our oven died while making pies for Thanksgiving dinner.  I rewrote our menu for this week using our cook top and the Crock-Pot.  We are pretty sure the problem is an internal fuse which will be rather inexpensive to fix - we will save up and pay cash for the fix sometime in the next week or two.

* We wrapped a gently used toy that we were going to donate for a young friend, who has a birthday next week.  The young friend is enthralled with this type of toy at the moment, and we are quite positive he will be very excited to receive it.  This friend's parents rarely buy new toys, opting for used instead, and we have checked that giving him a gently used toy is fine before gifting it.  In a complete fluke, it matches with the theme of his birthday party perfectly this year!

* I cleaned out a couple of file boxes of old papers this week, shredding and saving for kindling anything sensitive and recycling the rest.  It feels good to have a bit more space in the house at no cost!

What have you done this last week that might count as frugal?

Popular posts from this blog

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 17, 2021

Image
Peas from my garden last summer.  We are cold and snowy with a lot of ice right now!  Not my favorite weather.  So, to cheer myself up I am starting to plan my garden for next summer!  I am hoping that I will be able to grow at least enough tomatoes and cutting flowers for both my parents (who are moving 1 1/2 blocks away from us in about 2 months - hurray!) and our house as well.   I am so grateful that we have 1/5 acre lot for our home that we can grow vegetables flowers and (currently) a single tree.  It makes me so happy and provides some very fresh produce for our family.  I love the physical act of gardening, both flowers and vegetables, and I love the taste of vegetables fresh from the garden.  A win-win in my book for sure! The name of the game this week is to eat up as much of the fresh stuff as we can so it's easy to move the refrigerator downstairs for our remodel.  They start knocking out walls and cutting holes in the outside of the house next week and we will need to
Read more

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 10, 2021

Image
  A couple of lovely Christmas treats we received as a gift this Christmas! Yum! So, after publishing the menu last week John and I went through the freezer and refrigerator and decided that we better eat all the things that will be difficult or impossible to eat when we do not have an oven or stove top for a month or two.  That means last week's actual meals looked nothing like the menu!  That happens, I guess. With that in mind, here is what we're eating this week: Sunday, January 10:       Brunch: Cereal, Fruit and Toast       Snack: The last Christmas Cookies       Dinner: Perfect Potato Soup, Homemade Bread Monday, January 11:        Breakfast: Toast and Eggs        Lunch: Leftover Soup        Snack: Yogurt        Dinner: Beef Stir Fry, Rice, Orange and Grapefruit Wedges Tuesday, January 12:         Breakfast: Smoothies or Overnight Oatmeal         Lunch: Leftover Soup         Snack: Yogurt         Dinner: Fish Tacos, Fruit Wednesday, January 13:         Breakfast: Oatmeal
Read more

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 3, 2020

Image
John's Birthday Dinner January 2020  This week started with John's Birthday - he loves crab legs and we typically have them for dinner on his birthday, as part of his birthday gift.  Here in the upper mid-west of the U.S. crab legs are usually on sale at this time of year, so it works out well.   We have so much produce in our freezers and refrigerator this week and we are trying to eat our cupboards down a bit so things are easier to store during the big part of our remodel.  Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, January 3, John's Birthday:     Brunch: Smoothies, Oatmeal Muffins     Snack: Soft Pretzels     Dinner: Crab Legs, Green Beans Monday, January 4:       Breakfast:  Eggs and Toast      Lunch: Salad with Tuna      Snack: Yogurt      Dinner: Pork Chops, Cauliflower, Carrots Tuesday, January 5:      Breakfast: Oatmeal with Walnuts and Craisins      Lunch: Chicken Noodle Soup from the Freezer      Snack: Yogurt      Dinner: Chicken Lasagna, Green Beans Wednesda
Read more