My Frugal List: Week of June 25, 2018

Hubby took YD for 2 nights, 3 days to look at 3 colleges that she was interested in.They stayed at a hotel that was very reasonably priced and included breakfast. The hotel also had a coffee / hot chocolate bar and fruit available throughout the day. They enjoyed all of the above and even brought me home some other goodies since I wasn't able to go with them like originally planned. 


They went to a Ghirardelli store where YD was treated to a milk shake by Hubby. They always are giving out free samples so Hubby took some for me since he can't have them. YD took some but ate hers. YD was also given  2 college t-shirts and 2 cinch sacks from the colleges for free. They had Chipotle one night and Hubby used a gift card he got for Christmas. I made them sandwiches for the car ride there for lunch and packed the extra cold cuts so they could make sandwiches another day for lunch. We still have several more colleges to visit but we now eliminated 2 of these 3. 

The best part of my week was when OD came for a visit. She came home Thursday night and left Monday morning. We went to my nephew's Graduation (from high school) party on Sunday so everyone got to see her. She brought me my birthday and Mother's day presents as well as a few other relatives presents so that she didn't have to pay to ship them. We had a great time at my sister's house. She has a nice pool so we all went swimming since it finally hit 90° here. I brought a  chick pea salad that everyone enjoyed. My sister sent us home with leftovers. We also played a game that my son recently purchased for $10 with a gift card. It's called Jack Box and he bought it on Steam. It had several games in it. My favorite was Fibbage. You play it on your smart phones and it is either on your TV or computer. 8  people can play at a time. They give you a statement with a blank in it. You then have to get everyone else to guess what word/words you filled in instead of the correct answer. It was a lot of fun. We had a great time.


We did splurge while OD was home. NY is known for it's pizza and bagels so we had to get both while she was here. Hubby can't have regular pizza so we only bought one and we made a homemade one that he could eat also. I used a coupon for both. We spent most of the time talking and playing games. She did have a friend from HS come over and we did a fire pit with s'mores and beer.  I went to bed around 10 and they sat by the fire talking for a while. Much cheaper then them going to a bar. 

My son had friends come over for 2 days that were visiting from out of Texas. They are traveling for their summer. The first day it was just the 3 of them. One is a vegetarian so I made pasta with veggies sauted with red sauce. They also did a fire pit with s'mores. They used my free movie passes and saw Incredibles 2. I sent them with water bottles and snacks so it cost them nothing. On the 2nd day they went to a huge arcade at a nearby mall and met up with 4 other friends. They all came back here and I treated them to pizza. I did use a coupon to save $4.  They then went to a nearby lake to watch the sun set and hang out. They had a great 2 days together. 

We have been having a heat way this week. I washed  all of our sheets and hung them out side . All of our regular laundry too. We have window AC units so I shut down all but the bedroom ones at night. Used the grill 3 times this week so I didn't have to heat up the kitchen. Also did pulled BBQ chicken in the crock pot one day. 



We have been eating well. In addition to the foods mentioned above, this week I made a big salad with grilled chicken, marinated London broil, 3 different varieties of zucchini pies, tacos with beans and rice, mac n cheese, pancakes with fruit compote, eggs with biscuits, and waffles with strawberries. 


I made more Italian dressing


My garden is doing great. I have been weeding in the early morning and late in the evenings. I can't take the heat in the middle of the day. OD helped while she was home. We have been picking lots of peas. YD took some home with her. We also picked some peppers, lettuce and herbs. 


We made homemade chocolate chip cookies the night OD came home. Nothing like walking in to homemade cookies.


Leftover water from cups, dog bowls and washing fruits and veggies has been used to water my potted plants and herbs. 

We gave Oreo a bath on a really hot day. I also cut her nails, cleaned her ears and cut the hair around her paws. She has been getting brushed a lot this week to get rid of her extra hair. She looks beautiful. She would love if I would leave her alone now as she really hates baths. I throw the hair that came off of her into my garden as it helps keep pests out. 

Hubby and I closed out the budget for June. We are on Baby Steps 4, 5 and 6 if you follow Dave Ramsey. We also made our July budget. The kids did the same for their budgets. 

I have been washing baggies, using cloth rags and napkins, washing only full loads of laundry and dishes, using half of the amount of detergent, watering down soap and shampoos, shopping sales, using coupons, using the library and just being content with what we have.

What did you do this week? How is your garden coming along? 

















Comments

  1. Hi Mcoia and you did really well and packing travel lunches and snacks for movies and travel save a fortune. Are your take away meals you buy there really expensive as they are here to buy ?. Cooking your meals from scratch is another way to save a heap in the budget too.

    We had a good week here too still not up to full capacity yet after the flu but are feeling slowly better and more energetic and got a few things done.

    Our gardens are producing really well here and we have been harvesting of late a lot of cherry tomatoes, herbs and lavender from the gardens. Time we also picked some beetroot and carrots for juices as well :).

    Our savings added up to $292.35 last week.

    Earnings -
    - Made $25.18 from the sale of a set of 4 curtain tieback cuffs and 70 g of dried sage picked from the gardens on the internet. I banked this into our emergency kitty saving us having to pay this from our pays.

    Purchases -
    - Purchased 2 bomber jackets from Aldi on special for winter gardening work, 3 Sherpa hoodies and 3 flannelette shirts for DH and 4 long sleeved t-shirts for myself from Big W saving $161.70 over purchasing them in other local stores.
    - Bought 4 packets of butter menthol's on special for the medical kit on special saving $2.
    - Redeemed $10 worth of FlyBuys points and purchased 4 tins of lychees with $1 OOP saving another $10.

    Finances and internet listings -
    - Listed 29 items on eBay using a free listing promotion saving $47.85 on usual listing fees.
    - Banked more money into our home and bank emergency kitties.
    - Saved more money for our home and land deposit bringing us up to 26.28% of the way there.

    Trades and or bartering -
    - Traded with a fellow bluebird (and thank you they are absolutely gorgeous) 100 g organic dried rosemary,55 g of dried thyme and 34 g English lavender flowers picked and dried from the gardens as well as excess 30 g oregano and 8 g tarragon in our pantry for 6 x 25 g lovely homemade natural lip balms and a around 50 g tin of Comfrey cream saving $40 over purchasing them in the local shops.

    In the gardens -
    - Picked a huge amount of thyme from the gardens we currently have drying on a mesh metal rack behind shade cloth on the veranda. We will keep some for us and sell the rest on the internet.
    - Separated 36 g of English and 33 g French flower buds from the gardens saving $5.62 over purchasing them.

    Usual frugal things we do -

    - Used shower warm up water and dish rinsing water to water the potted fruit trees and vegetable seedlings in the gardens, used saved grey water from our showers and washing machine to water the lawns with, cleaned with saved flannel rags instead of using paper towel, only turning on our electric hot water system when water needed heating and generally purchased everything on special or at the lowest prices after price comparing between stores that we needed.

    Hope everyone has had an equally good week :).

    Sewingcreations15.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am in the same boat. I am not up to my normal strength but I want to get everything done. Takeout is diffidently more expensive then home cooked. Hubby and YD had Chinese one night and it was $18. Much cheaper then a sit down restaurant. The night they were coming home they had McD's which was $10. It helps that I packed them lots of drinks and snacks.

      Aldi by you sells clothes. Ours doesn't. That is so funny how stores in different places sell such different items.

      What is your eBay listings under? I would love to look at them all. Great job on the gardening and bartering. It has been hot this week so the tomato plants really took off. I can't wait for the first ripe tomato. Have a wonderful week.

      Delete
    2. Hi Mcoia and here's hoping we both level out and get to full strength this week. I am back to normal again and my energy levels are higher. At times like this we just have to go with the flow and do what we can when we have the energy to do them. We tend to move to the basics list which only includes washing dishes, cooking easy meals and washing laundry and sweeping & vacuuming when necessary and do the rest when we are better.

      The takeaway meals are expensive everywhere and I am sure baffled how many can just live on takeaway and not cook at all at home. It must cost them a fortune each week just for food that is usually not good for you anyway or healthy.

      I sell on eBay under the name of sewingcreations15 I don't have a shop but if you do an advanced search by seller name you will find me. Here is a link to my shop that may work also
      - https://my.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyEbayBeta&CurrentPage=MyeBayNextSelling

      Let me know if it works :).

      Get well soon and take it easy where you can and like us other things can be caught up on when you are up to full energy levels again.

      Sewingcreations15.

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    3. Your items are beautiful. I love how you displayed your dried herbs in heart shapes. Everything looks so warm and welcoming. The link didn't work for me so I just did a search by seller name.

      The kids have been doing their chores so the house is still good. I have been doing weeding in 20 minute intervals. On the really hot days I only do it early in the morning or late at night. I did start back to work so I am just doing a little at a time on the house and garden. Its not going anywhere.

      Delete
  2. I'm not going to have peppers for a while--but there are a few tiny ones coming along at last! Yours look wonderful. We have been eating a lot of other garden items, too. I'm glad you are starting to feel better, and hope it just goes away!

    It sounds like you had a wonderful time with your kids. What a blessing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We usually don't have peppers this early. I think because we had so much rain and mild weather until a week ago that the peppers loved it. Now that it is hot the tomato plants went crazy. I am happy to have what decides to grow well. We will make sure it all gets used.

      Delete

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