Frugal Friday - Last Week in January 2019
It is easy to have a low-spend week when many things are closed due to the weather. In all, we only had one day where no one went anywhere - Wednesday. The other days we spent minimal time outside but did attend to things we needed to. We lived in Grand Forks, North Dakota for several years and have very warm clothes, coats, hats, boots, mittens (gloves are too cold in this weather) and keep our cars well serviced and prepared for winter, so being outside wasn't awful as long as it was for a short time.
Here are some things we did this past week that may count as frugal:
* We made bread, two types of soup, linguine, and salad at home this week. We ate all but one meal at home or took our lunches with us this week.
* We hosted two family members overnight one night this week due to a canceled flight. One family member needed to change their flight location from a airport closed due to weather to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the other drove them here from their home, approximately a 3 1/2 hour drive away. Since we live relatively near the airport, they stayed overnight at our home. We made dinner for all of us using what we had on hand and enjoyed a nice visit! It was a lovely surprise to see them.
* We did some deep cleaning of the bathrooms while the children were home to help this week. The bathrooms look better, are cleaner and there was no out of pocket cost.
* We read books from the library and watched movies we already owned while home this week.
* The children used items we already owned to complete two projects for the end of term at school.
* My Mother made me a skirt from fabric leftover from a long-ago project. It is a plain black skirt that should get a lot of wear! It arrived in the mail this week as a surprise gift.
* We bagged up many items for donation, creating more space in our home.
* I sewed a button back on a blouse and another on my winter jacket.
* I worked on a homemade gift for my husband using items I already owned.
Frugal Fail:
* I had to throw out a container of pizza sauce that had gone moldy and another of leftover shredded chicken. Both had been pushed behind other items in the refrigerator and were forgotten about. Ick.
* We ran out of ink for our home printer in the middle of printing an important document and had to run to the store and purchase a cartridge at full price. Our printer takes two different cartridges, one for color ink and one for black. We had one but not the other - of course the one we needed was the one we were missing!
Frugal Splurges:
* My husband was given a gift card for movie tickets from a parishioner who knows he likes to go to the movies. He took our children to see a movie this week using that card. The card is for a discount theater, so he will be able to go a couple more times by himself as well. There was no cost out of pocket for this!
* We met my cousin and her husband for lunch at a restaurant halfway between our homes, meeting approximately a 2 hour drive from each of our homes. We had not seen each other for almost a year, which was WAY too long. It was a wonderful visit and she gifted me several photos of my Mother as a child that she found while going through some items she had received when her Dad's house was cleaned out. It was wonderful to have those! We have a category in our budget for family get-togethers so this was budgeted and well worth the money!
What did you do this week that may count as frugal?
