Frugal.... What day of the week is it?

More of my beautiful Valentine's tulips.  They lasted a whole two weeks!

These last few weeks I have felt that the days just run together - most of the time I have to double check what day of the week it is.  Oh, wait, it's still Tuesday?  Oh, yikes, it's already Friday?  That's pretty much how the year has gone.  I've been teaching a lot of Jazzercise classes and the semester is rolling along.  Buddy's basketball season is over but dance competitions are ramping up.  Then there is band and piano, confirmation and Lent.  It really never ends, doesn't it?

A couple of really non-frugal things that have happened lately (and I can't remember if I posted about them or not):

* More furnace repairs.  The repairman told us there wasn't anything else that could break at this point.  I'm hoping he's right!   Still cheaper than a new system!  We're still cold enough that a working furnace is a must so we can't wait on repairs until late summer. 

* Our van completely died.  After $5000 in repairs and then finding out it would need another $1600 at minimum to make it drivable, we decided to bite the bullet and buy a new to us van.  Our "old" van was a 2001 and had almost 300,000 miles on it.  We had planned on buying a new to us van sometime this year, just not this soon.  We're happy with our decision and hope to drive this van for at least the 11 years we drove the other one.  On the up side, they gave us $1500 in trade in value and didn't charge us for the repairs!  We had put the new car payment into the budget already, so we're good to go for now.

* We have had a mildew problem in one room of our house every time the temperature drops significantly below zero and discovered that the previous owners had just smashed spackle (yes, really) over the problem when they lived in the house.  So, now we have mold.  Mold that has had 16 years to grow, apparently.  Fortunately, it's not the dangerous kind.  We have had to replace all the drywall in two rooms of the house plus baseboards and trim.  Fortunately, I know how to do all that so we could do a lot of it ourselves.  Unfortunately, it's not covered by our homeowners insurance.  We added insulation (there was NO insulation behind the wall at all) so it shouldn't happen again.

Okay, now the frugal stuff:

* In the middle of all the things listed above, John's new cell phone completely died.  Fortunately, it was under warranty so they just sent us a new one for free! 

* We've made bread, biscuits, cornbread, tortillas, crackers, soup, chili, pizza, cookies, cinnamon rolls and probably other things I'm forgetting at home.

* I went through my sewing stash and sent my Mom material to make 3 dresses for our daughter, two skirts for me, and a pair of pajamas for my husband.  She had asked if I had any sewing projects she could work on for me, so I took advantage of it!   She has yarn to knit our son a sweater.  My Mom LOVES to sew - it's her main hobby - and she's very careful, so I always appreciate it when she can sew the more particular clothes patterns for me!

* I have used other material I already had to sew birthday gifts and a baby gift. 

* I taught extra Jazzercise classes, so I will be paid "extra" for those.

* We enjoyed several audio books from the library, as well as checking out regular books and a movie.  We also watched several shows on Netflix and YouTube.

* Our children have had two teacher in-service days in the last few weeks.  One day was my husband's day off and the other he worked from home so we did not have to pay for childcare.

* I went to a special class on how to do our daughter's hair and makeup for her dance competitions.  Now I don't have to pay the professional to do it!

* My husband brought home the following after meetings and meals at church the last few weeks: grapes, sandwich buns, lunch meat, a two-liter jug of root beer, popcorn, potato chips and tortilla chips.  All but the two-liter of root beer were partially eaten.  We didn't mind at all!
* I did buy girl scout cookies - in the budget and most were put in the freezer to enjoy later this year.

* Our daughter made decorations for a Confirmation event using art and craft supplies we already owned.

* My  husband gave our son two pair of shoes that he did not find comfortable.  Now our son has two "new" pairs of shoes and we don't have to order him shoes for a while. (Yes, they are currently the same shoe size, though I'm pretty sure our son will grow some more.)  Our son finds them very comfortable.

* I mended two nightgowns, two pairs of workout pants, two pillowcases, a pajama top and a tablecloth. 


That's all I can think of right now.  What have you done lately that's frugal?