Frugal Accomplishments From the Past Week

Our little herb patch has lovage, horse radish, lemon balm, oregano, feverfew, lots of mint,
'walking' onions and garlic chives.

I gave myself a haircut.  I had cut it into a bob for summer, which was great, but it was getting long and a little unruly, so I'm back to soft layers.  It feels, and looks, a little lighter.

I was more conscious about combining errands, staying home when I could and using less fuel.  On a day when I really did need to go out to pick up something I was buying, I also stopped at a friend's house and returned library books, for example.

I use a local facebook buy-sell-trade page, which had to do with the 'something I was buying' mentioned above.  This week, I got Daughter's main birthday present, her main Christmas present, and a couple of stocking stuffers that I know she will love.  I paid for them with funds I got from selling items we no longer needed...on the very same page.

I picked green beans and zucchini from our garden.  The beets and peas I planted for 'fall garden' are sprouting.  I am still watching for the lettuces.

I weeded out all my old, rusty canning jar rings and made these cute pumpkins.  I wanted to paint them, but the only spray paint colors I had that were even close to what I wanted were red and gold.  I did a light, not-so-even layer of the red, then did the same with the gold, hoping it will look 'orange-y'.  What do you think?  The stems are sticks from our yard.  The flowers are last week's indoor bouquet.  I leave them on the back deck - they look pretty there, and the birds can come and pick at them...later, I take them to the compost bin.

I made a loaf of zucchini bread this week, to help use up some of the bounty.  I also made a lot of our other foods from scratch, and we made good use of leftovers.  I make more kale chips too, because a friend gave me a grocery bag of kale, and that's a great way to preserve it for later.

The weather this week has often been dreary and cool.  Good weather for
baking and dehydrating indoors.  The tree with the netting (right of photo)
is our prune plum tree.  We should be able to pick the plums soon.

I combined a sale on soda, a sale on crackers and a gift card rebate to get four 2-liter bottles of Coke and three boxes of Cheez-Its for $5.01.  I know....not the healthiest.  We also had homemade kale chips this week (so at least we're trying!), and the snacks will last past this week, for sure.

In another sale, I paid 1.96 for four boxes of granola bars, and received a $2 off coupon for my next purchase.  My next purchase (I did it right away, before I lose the coupon!) was a 40 oz. jar of peanut butter that was on sale for $5, which was just $3 after the coupon.  Four boxes of granola bars and a very large jar of Skippy for $4.96 is pretty good!

Walmart had girl's socks on clearance.  There were 10-packs for $1 in toddler/preschool size, and 10-packs for $3 in girl's 'large'...which sure do look the same as women's socks to me.  I bought two packages of the large ones for me (Daughter likes socks that come further up her leg, but I like this kind fine) and two packages of the smaller socks.  We will donate those when the church asks for clothing donations for missions.  If I find that the larger ones don't fit me after all, I can donate the remaining ones.

We read books, watched movies and listened to music from the public library.  We also attended a library program for kids that gave Daughter a chance to create and have fun with her friends.

When I was going through a cabinet in the basement I found a huge container of bubble solution.  Huge.  I topped off Daughter's bubbles (which are not much of a draw anymore, at her age) and I've been using the rest of it in the laundry.  It seems to work just fine.

We went out for a meal on the weekend and used a coupon to cut the cost by almost $5.  We drank water instead of soda and we all shared one side.  We had plenty to eat, but our 'ticket' was less than half what we would have paid for individual meals.

Kitchen scraps - melon rinds, vegetable peels, apple cores, etc. went into the outdoor chicken run, as always.  The hens pick and the 'treats' and are quite happy to get them.

I took two surveys this week, earning $3 each.

I partially thawed a large turkey this week and cut it into pieces.  I roasted the breast for supper and plenty of leftovers, some for lunches this week, some for meals next week.  I wrapped the wings together, the legs together and each thigh separately.  The wing meat is good in buffalo chicken recipes, the legs are great for barbecue and the thighs get soaked in an Asian marinade and then cooked and served with rice.  the frame and remaining parts went into the crock pot with six cups of water to make stock.  The only thing I threw away outright was the wrapper.  :)

Did you have a frugal week?  Share your accomplishments in the comments!