Frugal Friday - October 2019

Tomato Sauce - starting to cook down.  Yum!

October has been a wild month here - we have had so many things happening.  Most have not been good - and completely out of our control.  I am thoroughly exhausted and am planning on sleeping until I wake tomorrow (Saturday), no alarm setting for me!   I may even take a nap in the afternoon too. 

Our children have adjusted nicely to school and have made some nice friends.  Both children have attended birthday parties and, last night, a Halloween party with those friends.  I am grateful for new friends who have helpful, lovely parents and the same types of interests and goals as my children.  The children who hosted the parties are all Pastor's children which is another level of connection for our children - Pastor's children, whether we like it or not, always have challenges that non-Pastor's children never face.

Our big good event in October 2019 was that our children celebrated Affirmation of Baptism, better known as Confirmation on Reformation Sunday.  In the Lutheran church, our children are typically Baptized as infants (though anyone can be Baptized at any age) and Confirmation is when they take on the promises we made for them as children.  It is their official acceptance into the church as adult members.  It was a big deal and we ended the month not only with an amazing and wonderful Worship service but also with an open house that brought almost 100 people to celebrate with us.  Lots of food, lots of planning, lots of cleaning.  It was busy!  And wonderful.

The rest of the not-so-good things I am not at liberty to share at this time but it involved rolling emotions, many tears, and travel.  And, of course, mid-term grades were due during that time, we were battling huge head colds and we received our first snow of the season and had to get the yard put to rest for winter in a much shorter than usual time frame.  Sigh. It never rains but it pours, as the saying goes.

I did spend some time in October processing the last of the garden product - tomato sauce (first time canning!), cucumber pickles, beet (beetroot) pickles, and blanching and freezing kohlrabi, carrots and broccoli.  We have full freezers and pantry and I am very, very grateful.

Here's are the highlights from the frugal things that happened in October:

* A friend gifted my husband and my son winter coats - that they needed. It was a blessing! 

* A church member gave us four jars of delicious jam.  Her jam is marvelous and I had secretly hoped she would give us some this year. YUM!

* We celebrated with so many friends from the whole span of our children's lives at Confirmation - I am truly grateful and blessed to see them all at this time in our lives!

* A church member volunteered to help us in the kitchen at the open house - that was such a blessing too and gave us more time to visit!

* I found both snapdragons and roses protected from the frost that we had.  I cut both for bouquets on the kitchen table.

* My cousin came for a visit and we went to two second hand stores.  I bought two Christmas gifts at a significant discount.

* We attended the wedding of a pair of wonderful friends and enjoyed the company of other friends and a delicious meal.

* A friend gifted our children and my husband several sweaters.

* We harvested the last of our garden - broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, a handful of protected tomatoes, and 15 pounds of carrots.

* We cleaned up the yard, drained the covered the outdoor water lines, and covered the outdoor furniture in preparation for winter.

* We baked several types of cookies and baklava for the open house and used our regular grocery budget to purchase other needed items.

* We also made several types of soup, bread, pancakes, waffles, pan fried fish, chicken pot pies, and stir fry at home.

I have been working very hard on our Christmas gifts, as our Christmas budget has been depleted by other events.  I will be running a series of posts on Wednesdays here on my blog featuring some of those gifts.  I hope you will stop back and see what I have been working on!

What have you done lately that was frugal?