Frugal Friday - On a Monday!
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| Produce from our back yard a few weeks ago. |
Thankfully, it appears we're all on the mend (Missy caught the head cold too - way worse than I had it, poor thing).
It's been a pretty quiet couple of weeks with me being sick and everyone getting into the swing of all things school around here.
We've done some frugal things:
* Ate most of our meals at home and brown-bagged almost all the lunches. Enjoyed lunch at our church on Rally Sunday (last Sunday) with the rest of our congregation. I had a free lunch at work one day too - I guess that's a perk of having to go to meetings...
* I paid cash for 3/4 tank of gas rather than getting a full tank with my credit card.
* Used a gift card to get ice cream after the first day of school and a punch card to get a free loaf of bread from a bakery.
* Tried on all of our clothes - man, do we have a lot of clothes! Put some back into our closets, put some in the mend pile, put others aside for a garage sale and a few others to take to the consignment store (I'll take store credit rather than cash so I can get more bang for my buck there!).
* Made a mock apple crisp using zucchini. It tasted good (John was really surprised!).
* Updated the budget book and budget.
* Slept a lot - went to bed early, came home early and took naps and have tried to stay home while I've been sick. Hate being sick but I'm glad that I can do that!
* Enjoyed cookies that a co-worker brought to share one day. They were delicious!
* A friend gave us ornamental pumpkins - they had grown more than they wanted so they shared!
* Submitted the paperwork for a rebate. Will use that rebate to buy a couple of Christmas gifts.
* Took advantage of a good sale and store credit to order Christmas gifts for my husband and my father. (My husband's family draws names - there are 26 of us so far - and we don't know who we have or I would have ordered for my father-in-law too.)
* Put together a list and schedule for making Christmas gifts this year - we only had $100 for Christmas this year (so far - that rebate will get a couple of additional things too) and I will end up making most of our Christmas gifts this year as a result. If I'm really on the ball, I'll post about it as I make things this year! I should be able to make most things using what we have on hand and a gift card or two that we already have.
* Picked a ton more squash, cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden.
* The children enjoyed the return of fall programming at church. They love the pre-confirmation program and I'm excited that they are enjoying it so much. They get a treat while they are there and get to do several things during the year that we wouldn't do on our own.
* Our pre-paid cell phones didn't ring up with the triple minute code my husband entered so he called and they credited our account with the triple minutes.
* FREE LAUGH: One evening while I was making dinner, I looked out the window and saw a squirrel trying to steal the one cucumber that grew outside the chicken-wire garden fence. It was hysterical, since the squirrel didn't realize the cucumber was still attached to the plant and he'd run and the cucumber would pull out of his hands and he'd go back and try again! He eventually gave up and took several yellow pear tomatoes that had fallen to the ground and ran off.
What have you been up to this week?
