Frugal Friday - Frugal Things We've Done in the Last Two Weeks
Frugal things from the last couple of weeks...hrmmm....
This semester is kicking my behind - and it probably should. I'm teaching a class I haven't taught in 3 years and I'm approaching my Dissertation Defense very soon as well. John is in the thick of interviews of Internship and we have more snow again and icky roads. I guess I have every right to feel like I'm buried under the things that "have" to get done!
Honestly, I haven't felt very frugal the last couple of weeks. We haven't spent any money we didn't plan on spending to begin with but we haven't done a whole lot of "extra" anyway.
Here's what I kept track of for the last two weeks:
* Spent Valentine's Day evening at home with the family. We had decided to order a small order of takeout Chinese for the family for dinner that night. We stayed within budget and even had enough for leftovers for lunch on Saturday.
* The children went to a play date at a friend's house on Saturday. We used the time to have our taxes done! And we got a refund that went right into savings. (We did take a small amount to buy a new air vent cover for our kitchen though - it's in the middle of the floor and every once in a while someone puts a chair leg through it. Sigh.) The kids had a blast and we got that much-needed chore done.
* I made up the menu for the week using primarily food we had in the house. We brown-bagged lunches all week both weeks.
* I made homemade Valentine's for everyone rather than buying them.
* I made homemade biscuits for dinner one night. And I made marshmallow treats (like Rice Crispy Treats) with marshmallows I'd bought at Christmas time (I didn't want them to harden before I used them) and some leftover cinnamon Cheerios that were stale. I didn't want to throw them out and they made good treats!
* John has worn clothes we already had for his interviews this week.
* Buddy wore through the knee of one pair of his school pants. I cut them off and hemmed them so he can wear them this summer (and to school one it gets warm enough - we have about 3 1/2 feet of snow right now - ha!).
* Went to the library and checked out a whole stack of children's books and three DVDs (one for each of the children and one for me).
* Downloaded several free ebooks for my Kindle for PC
* Decided to do some "Freezer Cooking" again. I'm putting that in quotes because some of it is just prepping food for the crock pot or for stir fry and then freezing rather than actual "freezer cooking", per se. It makes making dinner much easier and we don't waste as much food either.
* Taught an extra Jazzercise class for an instructor who had a sick child, so I got paid for an "extra" class too.
* The children attended a Lutheran School's Week event and received a free t-shirt each. They are slightly big so they should be perfect for summer!
Wow - I guess that's more frugal stuff than I thought. It's so hard sometimes to just keep pushing ahead since we're so busy with everything else. I guess the good thing about being busy - we don't have time to waste money shopping, running extra places, or going on additional outings. We just don't have the time!
Frugal Flops:
Paying more for parking than I normally do - I've had a lot of meeting with my advisor on days when I don't normally go to campus so I've had to pay for parking. Fortunately the commuter lot isn't that expensive but it's still an added expense! Thankfully that won't last much longer. And hopefully the days that I work from home make up for that somehow.
Also made a pot of soup that ended up in the compost bin - it was just not very good and we decided we wouldn't eat it again so it went in the compost bin since it didn't have any animal products in it (vegetable broth, veggies, beans and noodles).
What did you do this week?
This semester is kicking my behind - and it probably should. I'm teaching a class I haven't taught in 3 years and I'm approaching my Dissertation Defense very soon as well. John is in the thick of interviews of Internship and we have more snow again and icky roads. I guess I have every right to feel like I'm buried under the things that "have" to get done!
Honestly, I haven't felt very frugal the last couple of weeks. We haven't spent any money we didn't plan on spending to begin with but we haven't done a whole lot of "extra" anyway.
Here's what I kept track of for the last two weeks:
* Spent Valentine's Day evening at home with the family. We had decided to order a small order of takeout Chinese for the family for dinner that night. We stayed within budget and even had enough for leftovers for lunch on Saturday.
* The children went to a play date at a friend's house on Saturday. We used the time to have our taxes done! And we got a refund that went right into savings. (We did take a small amount to buy a new air vent cover for our kitchen though - it's in the middle of the floor and every once in a while someone puts a chair leg through it. Sigh.) The kids had a blast and we got that much-needed chore done.
* I made up the menu for the week using primarily food we had in the house. We brown-bagged lunches all week both weeks.
* I made homemade Valentine's for everyone rather than buying them.
* I made homemade biscuits for dinner one night. And I made marshmallow treats (like Rice Crispy Treats) with marshmallows I'd bought at Christmas time (I didn't want them to harden before I used them) and some leftover cinnamon Cheerios that were stale. I didn't want to throw them out and they made good treats!
* John has worn clothes we already had for his interviews this week.
* Buddy wore through the knee of one pair of his school pants. I cut them off and hemmed them so he can wear them this summer (and to school one it gets warm enough - we have about 3 1/2 feet of snow right now - ha!).
* Went to the library and checked out a whole stack of children's books and three DVDs (one for each of the children and one for me).
* Downloaded several free ebooks for my Kindle for PC
* Decided to do some "Freezer Cooking" again. I'm putting that in quotes because some of it is just prepping food for the crock pot or for stir fry and then freezing rather than actual "freezer cooking", per se. It makes making dinner much easier and we don't waste as much food either.
* Taught an extra Jazzercise class for an instructor who had a sick child, so I got paid for an "extra" class too.
* The children attended a Lutheran School's Week event and received a free t-shirt each. They are slightly big so they should be perfect for summer!
Wow - I guess that's more frugal stuff than I thought. It's so hard sometimes to just keep pushing ahead since we're so busy with everything else. I guess the good thing about being busy - we don't have time to waste money shopping, running extra places, or going on additional outings. We just don't have the time!
Frugal Flops:
Paying more for parking than I normally do - I've had a lot of meeting with my advisor on days when I don't normally go to campus so I've had to pay for parking. Fortunately the commuter lot isn't that expensive but it's still an added expense! Thankfully that won't last much longer. And hopefully the days that I work from home make up for that somehow.
Also made a pot of soup that ended up in the compost bin - it was just not very good and we decided we wouldn't eat it again so it went in the compost bin since it didn't have any animal products in it (vegetable broth, veggies, beans and noodles).
What did you do this week?
