Frugal "Friday" - Week 17 of 52

Some of the flowers that are starting to grow in my garden right now!  YAY for Spring!

Goodness, this spring has just flown by!  We only have a few more days of University left for me and then we jump into our abbreviated "summer session".  Final projects and exams and piles of grading at the normal routine here.  End-of-year projects, spring concerts and recitals are all coming up for the children.  John is thankfully heading toward a quiet season in the church year (Ordinary Time - also known as the Season After Pentecost - starts May 20th and programming for the year decreases at that time).  We're all looking forward to longer days with sunshine and green grass, flowers and fresh vegetables.  Two weeks ago we received 18 inches (just under 46cm) of snow.  Today, we have green grass and the iris are up about 3-4 inches (7.5-10cm) above the ground!  I'm hoping the daffodils and tulips bloom soon - they are just starting to bud!  Typically, we're done with all of that by this time of year but we have had a slightly longer winter this year.  I'm ready for spring!

We've had quite a few expenses lately that weren't planned and rarely happen.  We needed to make some unexpected auto expenses, a new clarinet mouthpiece for Buddy, and two new school skirts for Missy.  Thankfully, we have some funds for that but I feel like all we've done this spring is spend money! 

Here are the frugal things we've done this last week that have helped mitigate the expenses:

* Spent only $30 in groceries on Saturday last week.

* Attended a free band concert together as a family.  This was amazing!  And we were so grateful we could attend.

* Used a previously purchased membership to a local museum for a free date for my husband and me.  We discovered that the family membership was less expensive by roughly 25% if we visited twice a year.  Since we visit roughly 4-6 times per year, we end up saving approximately 75-80% over the per-visit costs.  We had an enjoyable afternoon, seeing a newly opened exhibit. 

* I made a gift for a friend's child using items I already had on hand.

* I sewed two buttons back on my spring coat.

* I washed our winter coats in the washing machine and hung them to dry, saving dry-cleaning costs. This is actually the recommended way to clean these coats so there was no worry about damaging the coats.

* John cleaned out the garage, recycling or donating some no-longer-needed items and sweeping all of the road salt, gravel and dirt that had accumulated over the winter out of the garage and placing it in the trash.  The garage looks so much better and it is much easier to find things now!

* We made soft pretzels, biscuits, potato soup, and potato fries at home.

* John brought home two bags of dinner rolls and a partial liter of soda pop from an event at church.  He ate leftovers of the main dish served at the event three days this week. All of these things would have been thrown out if he had not taken them.

* The children cleaned out their closets and drawers and we donated their outgrown clothing.  Both children have grown several inches since January, so there were many clothes that could be donated.  We also put together a list of items that needed to be purchased.  We will purchase a few things at a time as items are on sale.

* We ate dinner outside on the patio two nights this week, enjoying the lovely weather and watching the bird building a nest in our eves. 

* There are parts of our yard that had been inundated with non-edible, invasive weeds.  Last fall, before the snowfall, we covered the areas with black plastic (leftover liner that typically is used in roofing construction).  At the end of this week, we pulled the plastic up, raked the dead roots out, and seeded with grass.  One area, we left the plastic down and will replace it with a raised vegetable garden bed once we purchase the materials.  We rolled the unused plastic to use again, if needed.

What did you do this week that was frugal?