Frugal Friday - Frugal Things I Did These Last Two Weeks
It's been a while since I remember and was able to put up a Frugal Friday post! So here's one! I'm still working on a post about frugal gifts and I'll get to that once I have all my photos transferred to my new computer - which is mostly up and working right now - YAY!!!
In the meantime, here are some things we've done the last few weeks in the "frugal" end of things:
* Picked 15 (no kidding) zucchini. Gave 5 of them away and made two loaves of zucchini bread, salad, grilled zucchini, stuffed zucchini and minestrone soup with the others. Still have 3 in our fridge to do something with!
* Received a strawberry-rhubarb pie from the church pot-luck one night - they had one left over and sent it home with us!
* Used my birthday money and a 15% off my entire purchase coupon coupled with a killer sale to order two new dresses, two lovely shirts, and a new pair of jeans for under $100 including shipping from my favorite store! LOVE that!
* Accepted purple beets from a co-worker of my husband's. She had received them in her CSA and doesn't like them - so she gave them to us! Yum!
* Revamped the grocery budget so that hopefully we can make ends meet and stock up on what we need as well. Have stayed in budget and have roughly $13 for stock up right now.
* Weeded and mulched more of our flower beds - mulch was on sale a few weeks ago so we used up the rest of that. Helps keep the weeds under control.
* Blanched and froze 4 meals of peas, 3 meals of broccoli, and 2 meals of green beans. Made and froze a loaf of zucchini bread and two containers of mango salsa. Also made mango sorbet.
* Bought peaches at 69 cents/lb and sliced and froze many of them for smoothies and baking during the winter.
* Used some of the cash we'd saved up to buy my new laptop computer. Used a back-to-school sale to get a better deal (though I haven't learned to like Windows 8 yet!).
* Utilized our local library - books for the children and my husband to read, cookbooks for me to browse and videos for all 4 of us!
* Picked up another skirt and a pair of pants at the Uniform Swap at school for my children for this next year at school.
* The children were given sidewalk chalk and a list of sidewalk games from their piano teacher for a good summer of lessons. We have August off from now until school starts!
* My birthday is today (August 2) and my husband bought me an immersion blender - something I've been wanting for quite a while! YAY! The children bought me a new travel mug. I needed one of those too.
* We haven't bought any meat for a while and instead have been eating down our freezer so that we can defrost it before filling it up again. We're down to some lunch meat, fish, a ham and a turkey! :) We do have cooked chicken, stew meat, pork ribs and salmon and some shrimp in our upstairs, over-the-fridge freezer too. I think we're good for a while yet.
* Worked from home a few days and saved on gas and distractions.
* Picked flowers from my garden for my house rather than buying any (though the flowers at the Farmer's Market are very, very pretty!). Can't beat pretty and free - no matter how inexpensive the flowers at the Farmer's Market are!
* Cleaned out many unused toys and donated them or gave them to friends. Cleaned out lots of outdated papers and recycled or shredded them. Working on the kids with cleaning out more! :)
* Started buying school supplies as the items we need go on sale. So far we're about halfway through the list.
That's all I can think of right now. What have you done to live frugally lately?
Visit Life as Mom for more Frugal Friday and The Prudent Homemaker's Blog or Website for more ideas!
In the meantime, here are some things we've done the last few weeks in the "frugal" end of things:
* Picked 15 (no kidding) zucchini. Gave 5 of them away and made two loaves of zucchini bread, salad, grilled zucchini, stuffed zucchini and minestrone soup with the others. Still have 3 in our fridge to do something with!
* Received a strawberry-rhubarb pie from the church pot-luck one night - they had one left over and sent it home with us!
* Used my birthday money and a 15% off my entire purchase coupon coupled with a killer sale to order two new dresses, two lovely shirts, and a new pair of jeans for under $100 including shipping from my favorite store! LOVE that!
* Accepted purple beets from a co-worker of my husband's. She had received them in her CSA and doesn't like them - so she gave them to us! Yum!
* Revamped the grocery budget so that hopefully we can make ends meet and stock up on what we need as well. Have stayed in budget and have roughly $13 for stock up right now.
* Weeded and mulched more of our flower beds - mulch was on sale a few weeks ago so we used up the rest of that. Helps keep the weeds under control.
* Blanched and froze 4 meals of peas, 3 meals of broccoli, and 2 meals of green beans. Made and froze a loaf of zucchini bread and two containers of mango salsa. Also made mango sorbet.
* Bought peaches at 69 cents/lb and sliced and froze many of them for smoothies and baking during the winter.
* Used some of the cash we'd saved up to buy my new laptop computer. Used a back-to-school sale to get a better deal (though I haven't learned to like Windows 8 yet!).
* Utilized our local library - books for the children and my husband to read, cookbooks for me to browse and videos for all 4 of us!
* Picked up another skirt and a pair of pants at the Uniform Swap at school for my children for this next year at school.
* The children were given sidewalk chalk and a list of sidewalk games from their piano teacher for a good summer of lessons. We have August off from now until school starts!
* My birthday is today (August 2) and my husband bought me an immersion blender - something I've been wanting for quite a while! YAY! The children bought me a new travel mug. I needed one of those too.
* We haven't bought any meat for a while and instead have been eating down our freezer so that we can defrost it before filling it up again. We're down to some lunch meat, fish, a ham and a turkey! :) We do have cooked chicken, stew meat, pork ribs and salmon and some shrimp in our upstairs, over-the-fridge freezer too. I think we're good for a while yet.
* Worked from home a few days and saved on gas and distractions.
* Picked flowers from my garden for my house rather than buying any (though the flowers at the Farmer's Market are very, very pretty!). Can't beat pretty and free - no matter how inexpensive the flowers at the Farmer's Market are!
* Cleaned out many unused toys and donated them or gave them to friends. Cleaned out lots of outdated papers and recycled or shredded them. Working on the kids with cleaning out more! :)
* Started buying school supplies as the items we need go on sale. So far we're about halfway through the list.
That's all I can think of right now. What have you done to live frugally lately?
Visit Life as Mom for more Frugal Friday and The Prudent Homemaker's Blog or Website for more ideas!
