Frugal Friday - The Beginning of August 2019 a.k.a. The Camping Edition

Flowers from my garden - I picked these as an "Anniversary Bouquet" for us.  We celebrated 21 years this week!

It is August already.  Summer just flew by here this year - we were busy, busy and did a lot of different things this week. 

We had a lovely beginning to August - we spent two weeks Camping at Minnesota State Parks.  We ended July at one park and then switched to another park for the first full week in August.  We love hiking and find the State Parks to be a great place to both hike and get away from everything going on in our every day life and just relax.  They make for quite an affordable vacation and we enjoy it very much.  We "cheat" and stay in a camper cabin - a rustic cabin with walls, roof, windows, door, bunks and a table and benches.  Some have electricity and some do not.  They do not have indoor plumbing.  We love it and rain is no big deal - we just hunker down and play cards, read, put puzzles together and enjoy. No worries about getting flooded out of a tent in the rain!  This has been our preferred summer vacation for 10 years now, and we can not imagine doing anything else!

Here are some frugal things we did during those two weeks:

*  We used our grocery budget to purchase food for the two weeks and used several things from our pantry and freezers as well.  No "extra" spent on food - we did purchase some splurges but within the budget.

* We picked tomatoes, green beans and bell peppers from the garden and took those with us to eat.

* We used camping materials that we already own, only buying fuel for the table-top grill we own and use.

* We checked out several books from the library and took them along with us to enjoy. 

* We played cards and assembled two puzzles that we owned for additional entertainment while camping.  One was a Christmas gift this past year from a friend, so we texted him a photo when we were done.  He was pleased!

* We hiked an average of 8 miles per day.  Wonderful exercise and lovely scenery!

* I brought embroidery and worked on that as well.  Our daughter brought her sketch pad and pencils and drew a lot of wild plants as well.

* We used our typical weekly gas budget for the gasoline to drive to and from the State Parks.  We did very little driving while there. 

* We celebrated my birthday and our anniversary by eating one meal out on each day - dinner on my birthday and breakfast on our anniversary.  Both were a nice break from "camp cooking" and were enjoyed.   I also received new car floor mats for my car, which I definitely needed and small amount of cash from both my parents and my in-laws for my birthday. I will be using the cash to purchase new exercise clothing, as mine is starting to wear out. 

* We camped for a total of 9 days and spent far less than any other 9 day vacation we have taken. 

After we returned home we:

* Picked more tomatoes and peppers from the garden.

*   I picked flowers from our garden to make an anniversary bouquet for us rather than purchasing flowers for our anniversary.

* We purchased the last of the school supplies on the list for our children using back to school sale deals.

* We attended high school orientation and purchased the last of the school uniforms - our children's former school was K-8 only and we start a new school this year; so we needed all new uniforms!  I was grateful to get some uniforms less expensively a few weeks ago and only had to fill in some missing pieces this week.  The total cost was far less than I had planned!

* I tucked the rest of the budgeted money for the children's school uniforms away for future purchases - they will probably need a second sweater later in the year and who knows what else!  If we do not need anything, we will roll it over to next year.

*   I did take some of the budgeted money from the children's uniforms and set it aside for Christmas - we had budgeted far more than we needed and typically get them something uniform related for Christmas anyway.

* I collected the CSA share for the week.  We received cauliflower, garlic, onions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, peas, carrots, lemon balm and spicy peppers.

What did you do the beginning of August that is frugal? 



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