Frugal Friday on a Saturday - Third Week of September 2019

Heirloom zinnias in my garden - these have made me so happy this year! And, hopefully, they will reseed themselves for next year!

We are definitely heading into fall here in Minnesota.  The trees are just starting to change color, the breezes are returning and the nighttime temperatures are starting to drop.  Summer has made one more appearance this week with temperatures in the 80's F and 92% humidity (ick!) but that is okay.  Fall is my favorite time of year - I love the colors, the temperatures and all the fall produce from the garden - and I can wait a little more if I have to. Our summer felt very short this year so a few extra days is just fine.

We have had a busy week this week.  Or at least it felt that way.  Today we have our fall festival at church and the children are heading to their first school dance of the year this year too.  They are so excited about both.  Our daughter's dance line received very nice ballet shoes yesterday and she is very excited about those too.  High school is going well and things are finally starting to feel settled after putting the house back together from our water heater break a few weeks ago.

Here are some frugal things we did this week:

* We made pizza, four loaves of bread, fried fish, muffins and several other things at home this week.

* John and I each enjoyed a meal at work this week.

* I made one Christmas gift for our daughter and started on two other Christmas gifts.  Our Christmas budget this year is lower than it has been for a while, so I am trying to make several gifts this year. 

* Our children used clothes they already owned and items from around the house to make costumes for School Spirit Week this week - themes included 1980's and western.    They looked good!

* I picked flowers from the garden for our kitchen table this week.

* We harvested tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, and two butternut squash this week.

* I spent time cleaning out more unneeded items from the basement this week.  We sent 2 more paper grocery sacks of items to the second hand shop and added many other items to our recycle bin.

* I sewed buttons back on a skirt, a blouse and a suit jacket this week.

* John brought home leftover chips from meal at church this week.  We ate them as a snack with a jar of tomato salsa that we already had in the refrigerator.

* The children and I assembled a raised garden bed that we had purchased on clearance last year.  We had to rearrange an area of our garden in order to add it and we have done that slowly over the summer.  The bed is in place and I will transplant some volunteer strawberries into the bed when the time is right.  We used our compost bin to fill the bed with dirt - no purchase necessary.

* Baked a carrot cake as part of the effort to use up some of the many, many carrots we have. I had not made carrot cake in a long time.  It was delicious!

* We attended as a family a meal celebrating the musicians in the music ministry at church.  Church paid for the meal, we enjoyed a restaurant that we had never been to before and the children enjoyed a walk through an orchard and a wade in a shallow creek afterward.  It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon!

* I did all our ironing, as I usually do.  I cannot imagine paying someone to iron my clothes since I do not mind doing it myself and I always feel so accomplished when that chore is completed.

I think that is it for this week!  I hope your week was frugal too.


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