Frugal "Friday" - Week of March 29, 2020

I see strawberry plants!

I am so excited about the little bits of spring that are popping up around our yard - the strawberries, rhubarb, daylilies and iris starting to pop out of the ground are making me ridiculously happy!  I am hoping for warm weather over the next week or two so we can start cleaning up the yard from winter.  We have leaf mulch to remove from the flower beds and wood mulch to put down, grass to over seed a bit, and the initial weeding that I need to do each spring to keep the flower bed looking nice the rest of the year.  We have had a warm winter (comparatively) and it means that things are happening earlier than normal.  No complaints from me as long as we do not have another hard freeze!

Here are the things we did this week to that we see as frugal:

*  We made fried fish, minestrone soup, breakfast tacos, muffins, meatball skewers, chicken lasagna, pizza and oatmeal with maple cream at home this week.  We took meals if we went in to work (I had to go in once and John goes in three times per week right now - he's hoping to cut down to twice per week after Easter Sunday).

* Our daughter and I baked cookies one afternoon.  We popped popcorn for snacks as well.

* I got caught up on the ironing.  The tablecloths always get left for later, it seems, and I was able to do all of those as well as the clothes.  I feel so accomplished! 

* We washed and reused zip-top bags.

* We put two containers of minestrone soup in the freezer for later use - we even labeled them!

* I dug through my fabric stash to find fabric to make facemasks for our family and my in-laws.  My Mother had already made facemasks for her and my Father. 

* Our children continued dance and music lessons online.  They had online school this week as well. 

* I trimmed the last of the flowers and put them in a bud vase.  I'm hoping they will last several more days.

* We opened the windows several days as it was quite nice - just for a short bit to air out the house.  It is still cool enough that the house became chilly quickly with them open.

* I used craft and sewing supplies we already owned to make some little Easter gifts for the staff at church.  I have a few more to make but they are easy and fun. Our children have been helping with this.

* My husband took the van in for some routine maintenance and to have a rattle looked at.  There was a loose panel in one wheel well that was causing the rattle - we had to pay for a replacement set of bolts but there was no labor charge as it took about 5 minutes to replace them.  We were very grateful that it was not something larger.

* We all worked out using online programs or the walking path near our home. 

*  My husband and I had two at home dates with a walk and dessert at home afterward.


What did you do this week that was frugal?

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