Frugal Friday - The Second Week of August
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| Heirloom zinnias in my garden this summer - so pretty! |
After two weeks away, I spent much of my free time this week catching up on yard work - our yard was a jungle (or at least it felt like it!). I have weeded and weeded and weeded and dug out four volunteer trees from the flowerbeds that seem to have sprouted overnight. The yard looks so much better now and I am feeling like I might actually be caught up - or at least almost.
Here are some of the frugal things we did this week
* We ate all meals at home this week, except one that was at a church event.
* John brought home leftover apple pie and ice cream after the last day of Vacation Bible School at church - the pie would have been thrown away, as would the ice cream. We enjoyed both!
* We were able to bring home unused, uncooked pasta, some chips, two packages of dried plums, and 4 cans of soda pop after another church event.
* We picked tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers from the garden this week.
* I got caught up on the laundry - sheesh, I forgot how much laundry camping generates! Now, I just need to do the ironing....
* We are paying our children $1/15-minutes to shred all the items that need to be shredded after cleaning out our filing cabinet. Babysitting jobs have been slim lately and both children were looking for a way to earn some extra cash - they both have things they are saving up to purchase. There is quite a bit if shredding to do and, while easy, it is time-consuming. This allows them to earn a little cash and frees my time and John's time for other things.
* I blanched and froze beans, peas, beats, broccoli and corn on the cob.
* We enjoyed Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato (BLT) sandwiches with tomatoes and kale from the garden.
* Our daughter picked a bouquet of zinnias, phlox and snapdragons for the house.
* Our children need loose-leaf-paper this year for school this year. We had many half-used spiral notebooks that had perforations to remove the paper. I tore the paper out of the notebooks and the children now have no-money-spent loose leaf paper.
* A storm knocked out the electricity for several hours one afternoon. We passed the time by reading and playing a board game we already owned. John was at work, and was not effected by the outage.
* John was surprised to find that he had money left in his continuing education account for the year at work. He needed to use it by July 1 and so he used the money to order several books that will be useful in his work. They arrived this week.
* I used inter-library loan to get the last two books in a series I have been reading. Our library extended their check-out period from two weeks to three weeks. I am so excited about that!
* I put together a master plan for menus for September through December. I made sure to include all of the things that are currently in the freezer and pantry. We will use sales this fall to refill both this fall. I'm hoping to do a no-spend/low-spend couple of months - we will see.
* Our daughter used her babysitting money to order a lovely custom made leather purse from a parishioner. It arrived this week and is lovely! She is planning on using it for many years. I am so excited about this as it is something she has been wanting for a long time!
* My mother sent a hand-knit sweater for our daughter and a homemade fleece pull-over for our son as back-to-school gifts. Both children were pleased with their gifts. They will not be able to wear them on a regular basis to school (they wear uniforms), but they will be able to wear them at home and to other places.
* I baked zucchini bars, oatmeal cookies, muffins and bread this week.
What did you do this week that are frugal?
