Frugal Friday - on a Saturday - Second Week of September 2019

Kellogg Breakfast Tomatoes!  We have a HUGE number of these right now. They are delicious.

I always forget - on purpose I think - how busy the first part of September is every year.  This year we have had a lot of changes: new school, new friends, a change in activities, and a whole lot of other things as well.  Whee!!!  Hang on for the ride, right?  We are finally settling into a routine and I am grateful for that.

Our garden has been prolific this year.  I think we have had just the right combination of rain, sun and warm for the plants to flourish.  We only have one tomato plant that has disease of any kind and it is in a pot - I will throw away the dirt at the end of the year and start over again with that pot next year.  I have been busy preserving produce for next year and taking advantage of some crazy good grocery deals at the store as well.

Here are some details and other things that we did this past week that were frugal:

* Made four loaves of bread, biscuits, soup, stir fry and stuffed zucchini this week at home.

* Canned tomato sauce for later use.

* Blanched and froze kohlrabi and green beans for later use.

* Harvested carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers from the garden this week.

* I lowered the hems of two pairs of pants for our growing son.

* John brought home two bags of tortilla chips left over after a church event. They were to be thrown away - no one wanted them.  We used them to make taco salad one night and for snacking.

* We enjoyed a meal after church on Sunday for our kickoff of the fall programming at the church.   We brought dessert bars made with pantry ingredients and sliced cucumbers and cherry tomatoes from the garden to share.

* My mother offered to sew Halloween costumes for the children this year. The children are in high school now but can wear a costume to school on Halloween as long as it is a (clean, non-violent) book character - our daughter is going to be the Queen of Hearts and our son is going to be the Mad Hatter - both from the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland.  A friend gave our son a top hat that he will use for the costume.

* I picked flowers from the garden twice this week.  They decorated our kitchen table.

* We checked out several books from the library this week, including two I received from inter-library loan.

* The children and I finished putting the utility room back to together after our water heater leak two weeks ago.  It appears that we thankfully have no lasting water damage.  Several unneeded things have been cleared out and donated and the rest has been reorganized. 

* We cleaned the outside of the house this week using scrub brushes, biodegradable dish soap and a pressure nozzle for our garden hose.  We used vinegar water to wash the windows inside and out as well.  The house looks much better now!  (We live on a very busy street and get a lot of dust, dirt and who knows what else stuck to the outside of the house.)

* We used a real deal on canned goods - 39-cents per 16 oz. can - to purchase tomato sauce and mandarin oranges for our pantry.  There was a limit of 24 cans at that price so we purchased 12 cans of tomato sauce, eight cans of mandarin oranges and then four cans of potatoes that will be part of a donation for the local food pantry.

* I removed the sleeves from one of my blouses and turned it into a sleeveless blouse.  The sleeves have been far too tight for comfort as I have gained more arm muscle and I typically wear a sleeveless top under a blazer or cardigan at work in the winter due to the crazy heating system at work (my classroom is typically very chilly and my office is typically over 80F - approximately 27C - so weird!).

What did you do this week that was frugal?