Frugal Things We Did These Last Two Weeks
Okay, so not the best photo - very blurry, ugh - but you can see how big our zucchini are. The day before they're too small to pick and then - zip! - they're huge! We've been picking zucchini and tomatoes in abundance these last two weeks. Good thing there are a lot of zucchini recipes and that zucchini bread and minestrone soup freeze well! :) And good thing that Buddy loves tomatoes!
Additionally, we've been making sure we're cooking and eating or blanching and freezing what we have from our CSA so we don't waste the food. We've blanched and frozen green beans, peas, and cabbage these last two weeks. We also had blueberries that were starting to look a little iffy so I froze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and then bagged them to use in smoothies and baking later this fall and winter.
We weeded and weeded and watered and watered. We don't water the grass but we have lots of flower beds and the vegetables. We also moved rock from one flower bed to along the side of the house for better drainage and keeping the weeds down in that tiny part of the yard.
I mended two pairs of pants for my son.
I worked from home for two weeks to save on gas and distractions and to save from paying the babysitter to pick up the children from Vacation Bible School, which would have been difficult for her anyway since she had just had foot surgery.
I taught some extra Jazzercise classes - not only earned some extra money but helped out a friend who was unable to teach for a few days due to a family emergency.
Re-did the current budget to get us closer to our savings needs for Internship - we are currently at 15% of what we need for our first savings goal and 10% of what we need total.
We have worked harder at turning off the lights when we're not needing them, unplugging electronics when they're not going to be used, and line drying the clothes. I'm not too happy with our current line-drying situation but I'm hoping to work on that this week. I'm hoping to cut our electricity bill by 50% by the time we get to Internship.
Did some research about turning some work I do on the side into a real business. If this pans out, I'll write more at that point.
Checked several books and movies out of the library.
Downloaded several free books for my free Kindle for PC app.
Used back-to-school sales to finish purchasing school items for the children. We're all set and I'm astounded that I spent less on school supplies than I was planning to spend! I even bought extra crayons, markers and glue sticks for second semester, when the stuff from first semester seems to have run out.
Picked flowers from my yard for decorating our house - my zinnias and my roses are going gangbusters right now!
Had an at-home date night with a bonfire in the backyard and marshmallows. We had a great time talking and enjoying the lovely evening.
Our biggest thing these last two weeks isn't exactly frugal, except that we paid cash. We bought a new-to-us car! My old sedan is 14 years old and was getting close to needing some major and expensive repairs. We got an awesome deal and now I don't have to worry about my car breaking down on the way to and from work each day. We did this by paying ourselves the car payments each month after our last car was paid off 5 years ago. Since we already had the payments in the budget, it was already a planned expense and it gave us enough to pay cash for a new-to-us car this weekend. We pick up our car on Tuesday this week and we're very excited about it!
What have you done this week? Check out The Prudent Homemaker's Blog and Web site for more ideas and inspiration!
