Frugal Sunday - So Much to be Thankful For!

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I was going through our photos from this summer to order some prints and was reminded all over again how much I love the early, quiet mornings at the cabin we rent!   Here is the field across from the cabin all foggy in the morning sun.  Just beautiful!  The photo doesn't even begin to do it justice but I'll take the reminder.

We've had such crazy week and it really didn't feel very frugal.  In some ways it was - we didn't spend a ton of money and all that we did spend was planned.  Still, I felt like all I did this week was run places and spend money.  Here's what we did this week:

* I made calzones, spaghetti sauce, coffee cake, cornbread and vegetable soup at home this week.

* I attended a meeting that had a dinner with it and I received a free meal another day at work.

* John attended a 3 day workshop with our church and was treated to three meals a day while he was there.  Our congregation also paid for his hotel room and reimbursed us for mileage for travel there and back.  John did buy gas for the van and took some snacks with him but they were things we already had so the only expense was gas.

* We finished cleaning up the yard for winter ourselves.  It looks great ad we saved a ton of money.  I'm leaving my cone flowers standing to feed the birds this winter.  Seeing the birds from my kitchen window makes me happy and I'm sure the birds will appreciate the extra food.

* We hung our Christmas lights on the front of the house this week while we didn't have to deal with the snow.  The look nice and I'm happy to have that chore done!

* The children had several evening events while John was gone and we made dinner at home each evening even though I was very tired after long days.

* I taught an extra Jazzercise class this week and will be paid for that.

* We watched a video from the library and ate homemade pizza for Family Night this week.

* Saturday morning we drove to the Mall of America to see The Big Ring.  This was the kickoff event for the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign this year and was intended to beak the Guinness Book of World Records Record for a Bell Choir.  They succeeded and it was really fun to hear the music and see the record broken!   There were several members of our congregation's bell choir participating so it was doubly fun to see them participate.  The different choirs then performed throughout the day.  The children each bought the other a planned Christmas present using their own money after we heard the music.

* I went to bed super early twice this week - I was so tired and I the sleep helped me from becoming ill.

* I cleaned out several decorations and other items that we don't need anymore from our storage/furnace room.  I'm so happy to have done at least a little bit of that!  Hoping to get much more done over Christmas break next month!

* I used a discount code to order our Christmas cards online.  They came in the mail yesterday and are wonderful!  We used a photo from John's Ordination and we'll get those addressed for mailing in the next week so we can send them out right after Thanksgiving.

* I roasted several pumpkins and then froze the meat to use later this winter.  I made roasted pumpkin seeds to snack on.

I think that's it!   We have a couple of days off this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, which makes me very happy.  I'm grateful that we will have a wonderful meal with friends and then have a full 24 hours with rest before the weekend is over.  So grateful!

What did you do that was frugal that was frugal this past week?

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