Frugal Accomplishments for Early Fall

This little fall arrangement greets you at our front door.

I've been reading more lately, because I discovered an author that I really, really like.  Her name is Francine Rivers.  Thankfully, the library has many of her titles, so it is not costing me anything to read and read and read....and read.

I gave all my indoor plants a dose of plant food this week.  I got the plant food free at the county's hazardous waste drop off.  They accept old batteries, household cleaners, etc., and they have shelves there with things like cleaning supplies and plant food, free for the taking.  So we take in our dead light bulbs and old batteries and I pick up cleaning supplies, fertilizer, etc.  It has always worked out well for me.

When we built the house, we put in faucets by Price Pfister, that have lifetime warranties on them.  This has benefited us a few times.  Recently, I called them because the pressure balance regulator (or something like that) in Daughter's bathroom wasn't working well anymore.  I also had a shower head that had lost its finish when I cleaned it, and a spigot that had lost an o-ring, making the shower not work as well as it should.  I had to call them, and then send photos of the shower head and spigot, so they could match them up as best as possible with replacements.  The charge for replacement parts is $5 each time, whether we get one item or more, so we got all the parts we needed replaced for just $5.  I think this was our third time requesting parts, and they have always been wonderful about it.  Husband replaced items the day after the box arrived.

We had two big rains in one day, so the ground was nice and wet.  The next morning, I transplanted blanket flower, a peony, some bulbs and some Russian sage that were a bit crowded in the big flowerbed.  I moved them all to spots in front of the house.  This year we put in a driveway that goes alongside the house, and it changed the shape of things in front of our house, so these flowers will fill in nicely and look really pretty.  To be honest, it looks scraggly and scruffy right now, because the plants are not well established, plus there are weeds, but I think we will be able to make it nice with some time and effort.  It feels good to add lots of perennial flowers without spending money - just by dividing things we already have (and already grow well here).  The next day, I moved a few more things around, and it is all coming together nicely.

This area is overgrown, and I can take flowers from here without anyone noticing.

This is where they are going.  I am hopeful that eventually,
this area will be just as full and pretty.

Some of our never-ending supply of weeds.

My very good friend called me Tuesday afternoon.  She is in Iowa visiting family, and she had a question - "What do you need from the bulk store?"  It's a local market run by the Amish or Mennonite community there.  She is bringing me popcorn, cocoa, coconut oil, and possibly another thing or two.  The bulk pricing is really good, as is the quality of the things we have gotten there.

I hung clothes on the clotheslines or on clothing racks to dry them, and washed them with homemade laundry soap.

We are training Taffy to come when called and to sit.  So far it is going well.  We give her a tiny piece of a treat as reward when she does well.  We don't want to over-feed her on them, so we take small ones and then break them in two.  This week I made her some Puppy Pie Crust.  I baked it in tiny little squares, about a quarter inch size.  I made a fourth of a recipe and it made a lot (because they are so tiny) so there are some in the treat jar and more in the freezer for later on.

I took a little block of free time and made some thank-you cards.  I have enjoyed rubber stamping for years and years, but don't often find a lot of time to do it.  This time, I limited myself to a single ink color and just a few stamps, but each card is a little different.  It was fun to make them...plus, I needed some thank-you cards.

We combined a sale and coupons and stocked up on coffee for Husband.  He does not drink a lot of coffee, so it may last a whole year.  We will store it in the freezer.

I worked on two Christmas gifts this week.

I was offered, and accepted, a free magazine subscription.  Most of these go through and arrive at my mailbox, but once in a while, one doesn't go through - we shall see!

I was able to learn a little about some herbs this week.  I have one I was told is 'lovage'.  I looked it up to learn more about it and learned that in the U.S. it is generally called Angelica.  I think it will now be easier to research its uses and care.  I learned all this when I was looking up a 'weed' in my walkway that I thought might be Angelica.  It turns out that one is Sweet Annie, which I have always wanted, and apparently, the birds or the prairie winds have brought to me.  I need to learn more about its medicinal uses and hopefully get it established in a flower bed - it really is right in the middle of the walkway.  It smells lovely.  Finally, I'm studying Feverfew a bit, in part to make sure that I don't confuse it with one of the other two.  They all have similar, fern-like leaves, just in different sizes.  Sweet Annie is airy and delicate, Feverfew is the middle child, and Angelica is a larger pattern, almost like Italian Parsley.  I am looking forward to learning more.

Sweet Annie, growing right in the middle of our pathway.  I won't move it...
it's an annual.  Instead, I will collect seeds when the time comes, save them,
and put them in the herb garden or flower bed next year.

We did a good job eating leftovers for lunches this week.  I made a batch of kim chee and did a fair amount of scratch cooking this week.  We ended our September grocery budget with about $7 left over.  Our budget is $160 a month for food, cleaning supplies (most of which I get free from that drop off site) and toiletries.  This past month we stocked up on a couple of things, including sugar, potatoes, and bacon, so I am happy with our spending.

Kohl's continues to send me post cards for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more.  I used one this week to get some small items - purse size hand lotions and some glitzy nail polish.  These will go into care packages, a gift for our mail carrier and Christmas stockings.  Four lotions and one polish cost me 42 cents out of pocket.

There were days when we could have gone out to do an errand, but we stayed home.  I realized we didn't need to go out, we were just able to, and decided to use our time differently, to work in the yard, call a friend, read, visit with one another and play.  It also saved fuel and meant less spending.

How did you do this past week?  How did you save more, spend less and make do?