Frugal Saturday - Valentine's Week 2016
I just went digging through my photos to find a photo from this week only to find that I hadn't taken any at all. Opps.
We've still been having lovely sunrises when the clouds aren't around and the weather has warmed up to about 40F! The snow is starting to melt, though it's wayyy too early for spring here. I'm totally enjoying not having to bundle up quite so much every time I walk outside.
We had a pretty crazy week this week, in spite of not so many things going on, so I'm feeling a bit rushed this week in general. We did a few things that were frugal and I'm really looking forward to a trip to Sam's Club to stock up on a few things when our grocery budget resets itself. Here's what we did this week:
* Ate most of our meals at home or took meals with us. We ate one meal at church before Lenten Worship on Wednesday this week.
* John was assigned his Region for call by the church - Region 3: Minnesota, North and South Dakota - so we celebrated with ordering Chinese takeout from our favorite place. We ordered only two main dishes for the four of us and paired it with rice and fruit we had at home so we managed to keep that to $12 with tax - it came out of our "General" category (the one we use for household items, clothes, etc.) rather than the grocery budget. We don't have a recreational budget right now.
* My best friend also treated me to breakfast one day. I hadn't seen her in ages (she's had pneumonia for about 7 weeks!) and it was SO good to catch up. She has a big birthday this year so I need to start conspiring with her wonderful husband to do something special for her. We already have some ideas - nothing huge, but something that will have her whole family together and I'll do the cooking and baking for her for a change.
* I mended lining that had pulled apart at the seams in a winter coat and sewed buttons back on several articles of clothing.
* We brought home a Ziploc bag full of hard taco shells, a bag of shredded lettuce and a can of refried beans after the Lenten supper at church on Wednesday night. They had a few things leftover that were on a table in the Narthex for people to take (with a sign saying "Please take!") so we grabbed the taco shells. As we were leaving a little while later they asked us if there was anything else we could use - the lettuce was going to be thrown if no one took it - so we nabbed that and the can of refried beans. A main dish for free! Can't beat that!
* Taught some extra Jazzercise classes this week (and I think I'm ready to take out stock in Advil! LOL.). I need to remember to not up the size of my hand held weights the weeks I'm teaching extra classes.
* We cleaned out the children's closets and drawers and made a list of items they need for both school and "play" clothes. We don't need much.
* I also cleaned out three drawers in my own dresser and moved some things around and added a few things to the donate pile. I updated my list of things I need too - not much there either, thankfully.
* I renewed library books on line.
* We watched several videos online and listened to music on the radio or Pandora.
* A classmate gave our daughter a pair of very lightly used black dress shoes. School dress uniform requires black dress shoes so we tucked these away for when our daughter grows into them - which should be pretty soon! We passed on a pair our daughter had outgrown to a different classmate as well.
* A mom for the girl's basketball team at my children's school works for a screen printing business and donated t-shirts for all the children playing basketball this year. My son received a really neat new shirt that has the team, the year and his name on it. He's outgrown most of his t-shirts so this was really nice.
* I made up a menu to go with the $8 that we have left in our grocery budget this week. I think we'll just make it! And I'm really looking forward to that trip to Sam's Club next weekend - did I mention that already? **Grin**
* We celebrated Valentine's Day at home with a special homemade dinner and some time together. My husband bought me new socks and a set of colored pencils and I got him a box of his favorite candy purchased on sale after Christmas. We bought the children each a regular bag (not a holiday bag) of their favorite candy when they went on sale a couple of weeks ago and we all made homemade cards for each other. Then we all took a long nap. It was a wonderful Valentine's Day!
I think that's it.
What have you done this week?
We've still been having lovely sunrises when the clouds aren't around and the weather has warmed up to about 40F! The snow is starting to melt, though it's wayyy too early for spring here. I'm totally enjoying not having to bundle up quite so much every time I walk outside.
We had a pretty crazy week this week, in spite of not so many things going on, so I'm feeling a bit rushed this week in general. We did a few things that were frugal and I'm really looking forward to a trip to Sam's Club to stock up on a few things when our grocery budget resets itself. Here's what we did this week:
* Ate most of our meals at home or took meals with us. We ate one meal at church before Lenten Worship on Wednesday this week.
* John was assigned his Region for call by the church - Region 3: Minnesota, North and South Dakota - so we celebrated with ordering Chinese takeout from our favorite place. We ordered only two main dishes for the four of us and paired it with rice and fruit we had at home so we managed to keep that to $12 with tax - it came out of our "General" category (the one we use for household items, clothes, etc.) rather than the grocery budget. We don't have a recreational budget right now.
* My best friend also treated me to breakfast one day. I hadn't seen her in ages (she's had pneumonia for about 7 weeks!) and it was SO good to catch up. She has a big birthday this year so I need to start conspiring with her wonderful husband to do something special for her. We already have some ideas - nothing huge, but something that will have her whole family together and I'll do the cooking and baking for her for a change.
* I mended lining that had pulled apart at the seams in a winter coat and sewed buttons back on several articles of clothing.
* We brought home a Ziploc bag full of hard taco shells, a bag of shredded lettuce and a can of refried beans after the Lenten supper at church on Wednesday night. They had a few things leftover that were on a table in the Narthex for people to take (with a sign saying "Please take!") so we grabbed the taco shells. As we were leaving a little while later they asked us if there was anything else we could use - the lettuce was going to be thrown if no one took it - so we nabbed that and the can of refried beans. A main dish for free! Can't beat that!
* Taught some extra Jazzercise classes this week (and I think I'm ready to take out stock in Advil! LOL.). I need to remember to not up the size of my hand held weights the weeks I'm teaching extra classes.
* We cleaned out the children's closets and drawers and made a list of items they need for both school and "play" clothes. We don't need much.
* I also cleaned out three drawers in my own dresser and moved some things around and added a few things to the donate pile. I updated my list of things I need too - not much there either, thankfully.
* I renewed library books on line.
* We watched several videos online and listened to music on the radio or Pandora.
* A classmate gave our daughter a pair of very lightly used black dress shoes. School dress uniform requires black dress shoes so we tucked these away for when our daughter grows into them - which should be pretty soon! We passed on a pair our daughter had outgrown to a different classmate as well.
* A mom for the girl's basketball team at my children's school works for a screen printing business and donated t-shirts for all the children playing basketball this year. My son received a really neat new shirt that has the team, the year and his name on it. He's outgrown most of his t-shirts so this was really nice.
* I made up a menu to go with the $8 that we have left in our grocery budget this week. I think we'll just make it! And I'm really looking forward to that trip to Sam's Club next weekend - did I mention that already? **Grin**
* We celebrated Valentine's Day at home with a special homemade dinner and some time together. My husband bought me new socks and a set of colored pencils and I got him a box of his favorite candy purchased on sale after Christmas. We bought the children each a regular bag (not a holiday bag) of their favorite candy when they went on sale a couple of weeks ago and we all made homemade cards for each other. Then we all took a long nap. It was a wonderful Valentine's Day!
I think that's it.
What have you done this week?
